GOD  AND   PRAYER 


SK  M  &    A  DISCUSSION  OF  THE 
REASONABLENESS   OF  PRAYER 


0  =? 


m 


GIFT  OF 
SEELEY  W.  MUDD 

and 

GEORGE  I.  COCHRAN    MEYER  ELSASSER 
DR.  JOHN  R.  HAYNES    WILLIAM  L.  HONNOLD 
JAMES  R.  MARTIN         MRS.  JOSEPH  F.  SARTORI 

to  the 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
SOUTHERN  BRANCH 


JOHN  FISKE 


This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last 
date  stamped  below 


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DEC  3 


OCT3    1342 


GOD  AND  PRAYER. 


GOD  AND  PRAYER: 

A  DISCUSSION  OF 

THE  REASONABLENESS  OF  PRAYER. 


THE  BEDELL  LECTURES  FOR   1895,  DELIVERED  IN  THE 
COLLEGE  CHURCH  OF  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT,  GAM- 
BIER,  OHIO,  ON  FOUNDERS'  DAY,  BEING 

THE   FEAST  OF  ALL  SAINTS,  1895, 

J' 


BY 

BOYD  VINCENT,  S.T.D. 

BISHOP  COADJUTOR  OP  SOUTHERN  OHIO. 


*?' 


NEW  YORK: 

JAMES  POTT  &  CO.,  PUBLISHERS. 
1897. 

9  9  7 !)  / 


Copyright,  1897,  by 
JAMES  POTT  &  CPMPANY. 


Press  of  J.  J.  Little  &  Co. 
Astor  Place,  New  York 


BV 


&«> 

TO  THE  MEMORY  OF 

U- 

MY  FATHER, 

WHOSE  DEEP  DEVOUTNESS,    REGULATED   BY  A  STURDY 

COMMON   SENSE  AND  JUSTIFIED   IN  A 

LIFE   OF   RIGHTEOUSNESS, 

FIRST  TAUGHT   ME 

THE   REASONABLENESS   OF   PRAYER. 


FROM  THE  COMMUNICATION  OF  THE 

FOUNDERS   OF   THE   BEDELL 

LECTURESHIP. 

June  20, 1880. 

GENTLEMEN  :  We  have  consecrated  and  set  apart  for  the  ser- 
vice of  God  the  sum  of  five  thousand  dollars,  to  be  devoted  to 
the  establishment  of  a  lecture  or  lectures  in  the  Institutions  at 
Gambier  on  the  Evidences  of  Natural  and  Revealed  Religion, 
or  the  Relations  of  Science  and  Religion. 

We  ask  permission  of  the  Trustees  to  establish  the  lecture 
<£>       immediately,  with  the  following  provisions : 

The  lecture  or  lectures  shall  be  delivered  biennially  on  Foun- 
P^        ders'  Day  (if  such  a  day  shall  be  established)  or  other  appropriate 
time.     During  our  lifetime,  or  the  lifetime  of  either  of  us,  the 
0)        nomination  of  the  lectureship  shall  rest  with  us. 

The  interest  for  two  years  on  the  fund,  less  the  sum  neces- 
>rj        sary  to  pay  for  the  publication,  shall  be  paid  to  the  Lecturer. 
fe  The  Lecturer  shall  also  have  one  half  of  the  net  profits  of  the 

publication  during  the  first  two  years  after  the  date  of  publica- 
tion. All  other  profits  shall  be  the  profits  of  the  Board,  and 
shall  be  added  to  the  capital  of  the  lectureship. 

We  express  our  preference  that  the  lecture  or  lectures  shall 
be  delivered  in  the  Church  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  if  such  building 
be  in  existence;  and  shall  be  delivered  in  the  presence  of  all 
the  members  of  the  Institutions  under  the  authority  of  the 
Board. 

We  ask  that  the  day  on  which  the  lecture,  or  the  first  of  each 
series  of  lectures,  shall  be  delivered  shall  be  a  holiday. 


viii          List  of  Previous  Lectures. 

We  wish  that  the  nomination  to  this  lectureship  shall  be  re- 
stricted by  no  other  consideration  than  the  ability  of  the  ap- 
pointee to  discharge  the  duty  to  the  highest  glory  of  God  in  the 
completest  presentation  of  the  subject. 

We  desire  that  the  lectures  shall  be  published  in  uniform 
shape  and  that  a  copy  of  each  shall  be  placed  in  the  libraries  of 
Bexley  Hall,  Kenyon  College,  and  of  the  Philomathean  and  Nu 
Kappa  Pi  Society. 

Asking  the  favorable  consideration  of  the  Trustees, 
We  remain,  with  respect, 

G.  T.  BEDELL, 
JULIA  BEDELL. 

To  the  Trustees  of  the  Theological  Seminary  of  the 
Diocese  of  Ohio  and  Kenyon  College. 


LIST  OF  PREVIOUS  LECTURES  ON  THE  BEDELL 
FOUNDATION. 

1 88 1.  "  THE  WORLD'S  WITNESS  TO  CHRIST,"  by  the  Rt. 
Rev.  John  Williams,  D.D.,  etc.,  Bishop  of  Connecticut. 

1883.  "  REVEALED  RELIGION  IN  RELATION  TO  THE  MORAL 
BEING  OF  GOD,"  by  the  Rt.  Rev.  Henry  Cotterill,  D.D.,  etc., 
Bishop  of  Edinburgh. 

1885.  "  THE  WORLD  AND  THE  LOGOS,"  by  the  Rt.  Rev. 
Hugh  Miller  Thompson,  D.D.,  etc.,  Bishop  of  Mississippi. 

1887.  "THE  RELIGIOUS  ASPECT  OF  EVOLUTION,"  by  the 
Rev.  James  McCosh,  D.D.,  etc.,  President  of  Princeton  College. 

1889.  "  THE  HISTORICAL  CHRIST  THE  MORAL  POWER  OF 
HISTORY,"  by  the  Rev.  David  H.  Greer,  D.D.,  etc.,  Rector 
of  St.  Bartholomew's  Church,  New  York. 

1891.  "  HOLY  WRIT  AND  MODERN  THOUGHT,"  by  the  Rt. 
Rev.  Arthur  Cleveland  Coxe,  D.D.,  etc.,  Bishop  of  Western 
New  York. 

1893.  "THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  AMERICAN  CHURCH  TO 
PURE  CHRISTIANITY,"  by  the  Rt.  Rev.  William  A.  Leonard, 
D.D.,  etc.,  Bishop  of  Ohio. 


PREFACE. 

THESE  lectures  were  not  written  when  de- 
livered ;  and  it  has  not  been  easy,  in  the  midst 
of  an  otherwise  busy  and  active  life,  to  find 
time  to  fill  out  the  notes  for  publication.  This 
must  account  for  the  lateness  of  their  issue  in 
book  form — a  delay  which  the  writer  greatly 
regrets. 

They  were  prepared  with  reference  to  the 
special  audience  of  students  to  which  they  were 
originally  addressed  rather  than  with  an  eye  to 
the  reading  public ;  and  it  has  consequently  been 
thought  best  in  writing  to  preserve  the  informal 
and  direct  style  of  address  of  the  platform. 
They  are  lectures,  too,  not  sermons.  The 
merely  hortatory  has  been  avoided  as  far  as 
possible. 

They  were  delivered  as  two  lectures,  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  usual  custom;  but  in  pub- 


x  Preface. 

Jishing,  the  natural  division  of  the  subject  under 
an  introduction  and  three  heads  has  been  fol- 
lowed. 

The  writer  wishes  to  acknowledge  his  obliga- 
tions to  all  the  works  named  below,  whether 
expressly  quoted  or  not,  and  especially  to  Pro- 
fessor Le  Conte's  "  Religion  and  Science,"  to 
which  he  has  been  largely  indebted  throughout. 

B.  V. 


WORKS   REFERRED   TO   IN  THE 
TEXT. 

"  Some  Elements  of  Religion,"  by  the  Rev.  H.  P.  Liddon, 
D.D.,  etc.,  Canon  of  St.  Paul's,  London  (New  York,  Scribner 
&  Armstrong,  1872). 

"  Religion  and  Science,"  by  Professor  Joseph  Le  Conte  (New 
York,  Appleton  &  Co.,  1874). 

"  The  Relations  of  Religion  and  Science,"  by  the  Rt.  Rev. 
Dr.  Temple,  Bishop  of  Exeter  (New  York,  Macmillan  &  Co., 
1884). 

"Thoughts  on  Religion,"  by  George  John  Romanes  (Chi- 
cago, Open  Court  Publishing  Company,  1895). 

"  Christian  Truth  and  Modern  Opinion  "  a  Symposium  (New 
York,  T.  Whittaker,  1874). 

"  Old  Faith  and  New  Facts,"  by  the  Rev.  William  W.  Kins- 
ley (New  York,  Appleton,  1896). 

"The  Power  of  Prayer,"  by  the  Rev.  S.  Irenseus  Prime, 
D.D.  (New  York,  Scribners,  1889). 

"  Prayer  and  its  Answer,"  by  the  Rev.  S.  Irenseus  Prime, 
D.D.  (New  York,  Scribners,  1889). 

"The  Theory  of  Prayer,"  by  the  Rev.  W.  H.  Karslake 
(London,  S.  P.  C.  K.). 

"  Prayer  and  Recent  Difficulties  about  It,"  Boyle  Lectures, 
^73,  by  Archdeacon  Hessey  (London,  S.  P.  C.  K.). 


xii       Works  Referred  to  in  the  Text. 

"  Aids  to  Prayer,"  by  the  Rev.  Henry  Ward  Beecher  (New 
York,  Randolph  &  Co.). 

"The  Idea  of  God,"  by  John  Fiske  (Boston,  Houghton, 
Mifflin  &  Co.,  1886). 

"  The  Destiny  of  Man,"  by  the  same  author. 

"  Prayer  for  the  Sick,"  articles  in  "  Contemporary  Review," 
vol.  xx.,  pp.  406,  430,  760  (1872). 


TABLE   OF   CONTENTS. 


INTRODUCTION. 

PACK 

Two  kinds  of  difficulties  connected  with  prayer :  the  philo- 
sophical and  the  practical,  (i)  Modern  skepticism: 
its  character,  tendency,  and  effects.  (2)  Answer  of 
faith.  Practical  difficulties.  Justness  of  the  appeal 
here  to  reason  and  science xix 


LECTURE  I. 

First  Question:  How  CAN  GOD  HEAR  PRAYER?  Appeal 

to  foundation  truths. 

I.  THERE  is  A  GOD.  Fact  fairly  assumed.  Belief  in 
it  universal,  necessary,  intuitive.  Lies  back  of  all 
proof  and  so  needs  none. 

II.  GOD  is  A  PERSON.  His  personality  demanded  by 
the  human  reason  and  the  human  heart.  Con- 
firmed by  a  study  of  nature. 

III.  GOD   is   "  OUR   FATHER."      Hence  He  will  hear 
prayer. 

(1)  Scriptural  affirmation  of  God's  Fatherhood  does 

not  stand  alone. 

(2)  The  argument  from  pure  reason. 

(3)  The  moral  argument. 


xiv  Table  of  Contents. 

PAGE 

(4)  The  argument  of  physical  science. 

(5)  The  objection  of  God's  preoccupation  met. 

(6)  The  argument  from  prayer  as  an  instinct. 
Still,  How  CAN  GOD  HEAR  PRAYER? 

IV.   GOD   IS  A   (UNIVERSAL,    INDWELLING)   SPIRIT. 

(1)  Misconceptions  here.     The  true  idea. 

(2)  Effort  to  conceive  of  this  spiritual  indwelling  and 

communion  in  our  own  case. 

(a)  Analogy  of  physical  facts  and  forces ;  the  at- 
mosphere, the  ether,  electricity. 

(6)  Analogy  of  our  own  personal  presence  and  in- 
fluence in  human  society. 

(3)  What  is  meant  by  "  spirit "?     Spirit  defined  and 

proved. 

(a)  The  spirit-world — how  realized.      Proofs  of 

existence  of  matter  and  of  spirit  compared. 

(b)  Animal  life  and  spirit  life  differentiated. 

(4)  God,  then,  being  an  indwelling  Spirit,  can  hear. 

Scripture  and  Experience  declare  that  He  does 
hear.     Necessity  of  faith,  in  prayer I 


LECTURE   II. 

Second  Question :  How  CAN  GOD  ANSWER  PRAYER? 
I.  FOR  MATERIAL  THINGS  ? 

(1)  Christian  doctrine  of  providence.     Prayer  in  this 

connection  properly  not  petition,  but  an  act  of 
trust. 

(2)  Objection  of  the  doctrine  of  divine  foreordination. 

Objection  met ;  prayer  a  foreseen  action. 

(3)  Objection  of  the  invariability  of  natural  law.    Ob- 

jection met. 
(a)  "  Laws  "  of  nature  laws  of  freedom  to  God. 


Table  of  Contents.  xv 


(V)  Unchangeableness  of  God  predicable  of  His 
moral  nature  only— not  of  His  executive 
will. 

(f)  "  Forces  "  of  nature  within  His  control.  Con- 
trolled by  human  will  and  skill.  Man's  im- 
provement on  nature.  The  human  will  a 
free  factor  in  the  natural  world;  why  not 
the  divine  will  ? 

(d)  Bearing  here   of  the   scientific  doctrine   of 

"  the  correlation  of  forces." 

(e)  Invariability  of  natural  law  our  best  guaranty 

of  a  constant  providence.  May  determine 
God's  will,  but  cannot  limit  His  power. 

(4)  The  famous  "  prayer  test." 

(a)  A  fair  proposition  from  the  standpoint  of  phys- 

ical science.  Why  Christians  could  not 
consent  to  it.  Prayer  more  than  "  physical 
energy  " ;  contains  an  indeterminable  fac- 
tor—the will  of  God. 

(b)  Case  of  God's  will  fixed  or  contingent. 

(c)  Prayer  must  be  single-minded. 

(5)  Irrelevance   here   of   "Christian   science"   and 

"  faith-cure." 

II.  PRAYER  FOR  SPIRITUAL  THINGS;  HOW  AN- 
SWERED ?  Here  not  a  question  of  fact,  but  of 
method. 

(1)  God's  ways  of  working  here  not  wholly  trace- 

able; yet  His  spiritual  indwelling  implies  di- 
rect spiritual  communication. 

(2)  His  indirect  communication  by  means : 
(a)  Special. 

(£)  Regular,  i.e.,  the  Christian  "  means  of  grace." 
The  case  of  the  Word  of  God  illustrated 
and  pressed. 


xvi  Table  of  Contents. 

PAGE 

III.  SUBJECTIVE  EFFECTS  OF  PRAYER.     Defined  and 
claimed.     How  conceived. 

1 I )  Prayer  keeps  the  soul  dependent. 

(2)  Prayer  keeps  the  soul  open  and  receptive. 

(3)  Prayer  incites  to  action  answering  our  own  pray- 

ers. Operation  of  united,  intercessory  prayer. 
Case  of  the  great  revival  of  1857  considered. 
Divine  reality  of  results. 

(4)  Prayer  leads  to  self-adjustment  to  the  divine  will. 

(5)  Prayer  helps  us  to  realize  God.   All  our  religious 

life  gains  by  the  mere  force  of  habit  in  prayer- 
fulness  24 

LECTURE  III. 

Third  Question:  WHY  DOES  GOD  NOT  ANSWER  MY 

PRAYERS? 
I.  BECAUSE  WE  "  ASK  AMISS."  God  gives  only  "  good 

things." 

II.  GOD  GIVES  ONLY  ON  CONDITIONS.    Prayer  must  be : 
(a)  Believing, 
(U)  Humble, 

(c)  Righteous, 

(d)  Obedient,  etc. 

III.    GOD   DOES    OFTEN  ANSWER   PRAYER  BETTER  THAN 
WE   ASK   OR  THINK. 

(a)  Case  of  the  Master. 

(6)  Direct  testimony  of  our  own  like  experiences. 
IV.  ANSWERS  TO  PRAYER— IN  ANOTHER  WORLD.    The 
"  prayers  of  saints." 

V.    THE     TESTIMONY     OF     ALL     AGES      TO     ANSWERED 

PRAYER.  Its  weight  when  added  to  that  of  Scrip- 
ture and  of  our  own  personal  experience.  Cumu- 
lative evidence  of  a  whole  Christianity. 


Table  of  Contents.  xvii 

PACK 

VI.  CONCLUSION. 

(1)  Efficacy  of  prayer  not  absolutely  demonstrable, 

except  to  faith ;  but  at  least  not  unreasonable ; 
natural  science  cannot  prove  it  impossible. 

(2)  Power  of  prayer  to  set  in  motion,  perhaps,  all 

the  powers  of  the  universe 54 


Lord,  what  a  change  within  us  one  short  hour 
Spent  in  Thy  presence  will  prevail  to  make! 
What  heavy  burdens  from  our  bosoms  take, 

What  parched  grounds  refresh  as  with  a  shower ! 

We  kneel,  and  all  around  us  seems  to  lower ; 
We  rise,  and  all  the  distant  and  the  near 
Stands  forth  in  sunny  outline,  brave  and  clear. 

We  kneel  how  weak!     We  rise  how  full  of  power! 
Why,  therefore,  should  we  do  ourselves  this  wrong, 
Or  others — that  we  are  not  always  strong ; 

That  we  are  ever  overborne  with  care ; 
That  we  should  ever  weak  or  heartless  be, 

Anxious  or  troubled,  when  with  us  is  prayer, 

And  joy  and  strength  and  courage  are  with  Thee  ?  " 
THE  DEAN  OF  WESTMINSTER. 


THE  REASONABLENESS  OF 
PRAYER. 


INTRODUCTION. 

"  What  is  the  Almighty,  that  we  should  serve  Him?  and 
what  profit  should  we  have,  if  we  pray  unto  Him  ?  " — Job 
xxi.  15. 

' '  The  effectual  fervent  prayer  of  a  righteous  man  availeth 
much." — St.  James  v.  1 6. 

THESE  two  texts  strike  the  key-notes  of 
these  lectures.  They  suggest  at  once  two  kinds 
of  difficulties  connected  with  prayer,  one  which 
belongs  to  the  philosophy  of  religion  in  general, 
the  other  to  the  practice  of  prayer  in  particular. 

(i)  It  is  the  custom  of  certain  Christian 
writers  of  our  own  day  to  speak  of  other  pe- 
riods of  Christian  history  as  "  ages  of  faith  " — 
as  if  this  in  which  we  live  were,  by  necessary 
implication,  an  age  of  no  faith  altogether.  The 


xx       The  Reasonableness  of  Prayer. 

distinction  is  unfair.  The  fact  is  that  there  is 
no  more  disbelief  in  our  day  than  in  other  days. 
The  real  peculiarity  of  our  own  day  is  the  kind 
of  disbelief  which  prevails. 

The  skepticism  of  other  days  has  been  mainly 
speculative.  It  based  itself  on  an  a  priori  phi- 
losophy of  things.  Not  merely  did  it  admit  the 
idea  and  existence  of  the  spiritual;  its  chief 
concern  was  with  the  spiritual  essence  of  things. 
As  to  God,  it  regarded  Him  as  the  one  thing 
which  really  is ;  as  to  man,  it  rightly  considered 
him  as  only  existing  by  God;  as  to  matter,  it 
was  strongly  disposed  to  deny  the  reality  of 
this  altogether. 

The  skepticism  of  our  own  day  is  of  a  very 
different  kind;  it  follows  very  different  men- 
tal processes;  it  bases  itself  on  a  philosophy 
not  of  pure  thought,  but  of  natural  facts,  of 
physical  appearances  and  experiences.  It  is 
intensely  critical  in  certain  directions  (as  in  re- 
ligion and  history),  but  it  is  even  more  materi- 
alistic; that  is  to  say,  it  now  concerns  itself 
chiefly  with  the  realities  of  that  very  world 
of  matter  which,  it  was  once  claimed,  has  no 


Introduction.  xxi 


real  existence.  Its  chief  data  are  the  facts, 
forces,  and  laws  of  the  natural  world ;  its  chief 
code  of  revelation  the  discoveries  of  modern 
physical  science.  Is  not  the  whole  record  a 
curious  chapter  in  the  history  of  human  think- 
ing? 

But  now  the  final  tendency  of  such  a  materi- 
alistic temper  is,  of  course,  to  deny  altogether 
the  existence  of  anything  above  nature — of  any- 
thing, that  is,  which  is  not  knowable  directly  by 
the  natural  senses  or  indirectly  by  physical  ex- 
periment. It  will  not  recognize  or  use  other 
faculties  which  we  possess  for  knowing  the  su- 
pernatural. It  simply  insists  that,  by  reasoning 
from  such  means  and  data  as  it  will  use,  it  does 
not  know  and  cannot  know  of  any  such  thing 
as  the  supernatural.  For  it,  such  things  as 
spiritual  being  or  spiritual  forces  have  no  ex- 
istence. As  a  consequence,  the  being  of  God, 
the  nature  of  God,  and  the  power  of  God  are 
all  practically  denied.  Such  a  philosophy  be- 
comes almost  necessarily  either  atheistic,  pan- 
theistic, or  necessitarian.  For,  it  asks,  must  not 
matter  and  force,  which  are  the  only  things  we 


xxii     The  Reasonableness  of  Prayer. 

know,  be  eternally  self -existent?  Has  not  this 
present  world  of  nature  been  evolved  from  in- 
definitely remote  beginnings  by  processes  with- 
in itself,  and  entirely  independently  of  any  act 
of  creation  or  other  kind  of  interference  from 
outside  ?  Do  we  not  "  discern  in  matter  itself  the 
promise  and  potency  of  all  life  "  ?  What  need  is 
there  of  God  ?  God  is  only  an  idea  or  convenient 
name  for  the  sum  of  things — that  is,  for  matter 
and  force.  Even  if  He  be  a  person  and  a  Cre- 
ator, He  is  not  sovereign  in  His  own  universe ; 
He  is  bound  hard  and  fast  by  the  invariability 
of  the  laws  which  He  has  Himself  imposed  on 
nature.  Any  such  thing  as  His  freedom  of  will 
and  action  in  the  course  of  things  is  simply  un- 
thinkable. Special  providences  are  an  impos- 
sibility. 

What,  then,  in  this  view  of  things,  it  is  very 
naturally  asked,  on  the  other  hand,  becomes  of 
religion  ?  Are  not  its  very  foundations  thereby 
destroyed?  Has  not  the  very  Object  of  faith 
disappeared,  and  must  not  all  the  forms  and 
practices  of  religion  go  with  it?  In  such  a 
light,  is  not  "the  spirit  of  prayer  itself  irrational 


Introduction.  xxiii 


and  absurd,  the  act  of  prayer  a  superstition,  and 
the  posture  of  prayer  therefore  debasing  "  ?  l 

We  can  easily  see  what  effect  such  reasoning 
must  have  on  certain  classes  of  minds.  The 
out-and-out  materialist  feels  bound  to  make 
light  of  prayer;  the  worldling  is  only  too  glad 
to  get  rid,  as  he  thinks,  of  the  duty  of  prayer; 
the  unreflecting  Christian  is  disturbed  and  dis- 
couraged and  has  no  longer  any  heart  for  prayer. 
All  join,  more  or  less,  in  the  sentiment  of  "  the 
wicked  "  as  set  forth  by  Job  :  "  What  is  the 
Almighty,  that  we  should  serve  Him  ?  and  what 
profit  should  we  have,  if  we  pray  unto  Him?" 

(2)  To  this  question  the  Christian  faith  gives 
a  very  direct  answer.  It  turns  to  its  New 
Testament  and  reads,  "  The  effectual  fervent 
prayer  of  a  righteous  man  availeth  much."  2 
That  is  a  strong  declaration.  But  turn  now  to 
the  original  Greek  and  see  how  much  stronger 
it  is  there  :3  "  The  fervent  prayer  of  a  righteous 
man  [we  read  now]  prevaileth  mightily  in  its 

1  Le  Conte's  "  Religion  and  Science,"  p.  312. 

2  St.  James  v.  16. 


3  Edition  of  Westcott  and  Hort.    TroAii  icxtet  tifyoif  dinaiov 
ivepyovfiivri. 


xxiv    The  Reasonableness  of  Prayer. 

working" — literally,  "in  its  energizing,"  its 
power  to  effect  results.  One  might  think  from 
this  that  prayer  is  itself  really  one  of  the  great 
forces  of  the  universe ;  yes,  that  it  is  even  able 
to  set  in  motion,  perhaps,  all  the  mightiest  forces 
of  the  universe. 

But  now,  right  here — right  in  the  face  of 
such  a  faith — is  where  the  practical  difficulties 
come  in.  For  at  once  the  question  arises,  Do 
you  really  believe  that  statement?  Do  you 
really  believe  that  prayer  has  such  power  to 
prevail  with  God  ?  You  pray ;  you  pray  regu- 
larly, and  often  fervently,  in  just  such  faith. 
But  are  there  not  in  your  life  times  of  spirit- 
ual depression  and  disappointment  when  you 
ask  yourself  almost  aloud,  "  Oh,  what  is  the 
use  of  my  praying,  after  all?  How  can  God 
hear  prayer?  If  He  can  hear,  how  can  He  an- 
swer prayer?  And  if  He  can  hear  and  answer, 
why  does  He  not  answer  my  prayers  ?  "  Un- 
less your  experience  is  different  from  that  of 
most  Christians,  such  doubts  will  come ;  and  it 
is  no  sin  that  they  come.  They  are  a  part  of  the 
infirmity  of  faith  or  of  necessary  temptation. 


Introduction.  xxv 


The  sin  would  be  in  yielding  to  such  doubts 
and  letting  them  become  denials.  The  duty  is 
to  try  to  find  reasonable  answers  to  them.  For 
faith  is  not  unreasonable.  It  may  believe  that 
which  is  above  or  beyond  reason,  but  never 
anything  which  is  contrary  to  reason.  And  the 
very  purpose  of  these  lectures  is  to  show  that 
prayer  is  not  unreasonable. 

Yet  do  not  misunderstand  my  use  of  that 
word  "  reasonable  "  here,  nor  the  kind  of  argu- 
ments which  I  shall  use  hereafter.  I  do  not 
mean  to  suggest  that  all  the  mysteries  con- 
nected with  prayer  can  be  solved  by  the  reason 
alone ;  far  from  it.  You  can  learn  more  of  God 
and  of  the  mysteries  of  His  kingdom  through 
your  conscience,  your  heart,  and  a  life  of  actual 
obedience  to  His  will  than  you  can  ever  learn 
by  your  reason  alone.  Still,  God  has  given  you 
reason,  and  given  it  to  be  used  about  all  His 
works.  Even  in  the  matter  of  religion  He  has 
commanded,  "Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy 
God  with  all  thy  mind."  As  far  as  reason  will 
carry  you,  then,  in  such  matters,  let  it  do  so. 
If  it  cannot  demonstrate  here,  it  can  at  least 


xxvi    The  Reasonableness  of  Prayer. 

illustrate;  and  where  reason  ends,  there  the 
region  of  faith  begins.  Is  not  this  practically 
what  St.  Paul  means  when  he  says  to  the  Co- 
rinthians, in  speaking  of  the  mysteries  of  the 
Lord's  Supper,  "  I  speak  as  to  wise  men  [i.e., 
thinking  men];  judge  ye  what  I  say"?1  In 
other  words,  let  us  believe,  but  let  us  also  try 
to  understand. 

Still  less  need  we  be  afraid  to  appeal,  in  this 
connection,  to  the  teachings  of  natural  science. 
"  Science,"  says  Le  Conte,2  "  can  never  touch 
the  grounds  of  a  true  religion ;  its  whole  func- 
tion is  to  give  more  rational  ground  to  our  re- 
ligious belief."  "  The  progress  of  science,"  said 
Henry  Ward  Beecher,  "  lays  a  surer  foundation 
for  a  belief  in  God's  active  interference  in  hu- 
man affairs  than  has  existed  without  it.  When 
maturer  fruits  of  investigation  shall  be  had,  there 
can  be  no  doubt  that  science  itself  will  establish 
our  faith  in  prayer,  in  miracles,  and  in  special 
providences."  3 

On  the  other  hand,  let  me  make  this  neces- 

1  I  Cor.  x.  15.  2  "  Religion  and  Science,"  p.  29. 

3  "  Aids  to  Prayer,"  p.  62. 


Introduction.  xxvii 


sary  reservation :  we  cannot  give  any  absolute 
natural  proof  of  the  proposition  that  God  an- 
swers prayer,  especially  in  the  affairs  of  this 
world.  Being  properly  a  truth  of  the  world 
supernatural,  only  the  testimony  of  God  Him- 
self in  revelation  can  be  final  proof  of  the  fact. 
But  if  we  can  by  reasoning  about  them,  even 
on  the  principles  of  natural  science,  dispose  of 
most,  if  not  all,  of  the  difficulties  connected 
with  faith  in  prayer,  we  shall  then  be  in  a  posi- 
tion to  accept  the  assurances  of  God's  Word 
upon  the  subject,  and  especially  as  confirmed 
by  our  own  spiritual  experience  and  that  of  all 
other  men  who  have  prayed. 

Let  us  enter  upon  the  discussion  of  our  sub- 
ject, then,  with  all  faith  and  humility,  but  with 
the  confidence,  also,  that  by  thinking  about  it 
we  shall  only  strengthen  that  faith  and  deepen 
that  humility.  And,  further,  in  order  to  sim- 
plify the  whole  matter,  let  us  deal  with  just  such 
practical  questions  or  difficulties  as  those  al- 
ready suggested. 


LECTURE   I. 

HOW   CAN   GOD   HEAR   PRAYER? 

How,  then,  we  ask,  to  start  with, — How  can 
God  hear  prayer  ? 

Such  a  question  throws  us  back  instantly  for 
our  answer  on  the  very  foundations  of  faith. 
We  have  to  remind  ourselves  at  once  who  and 
what  kind  of  being  He  is  about  whom  we  are 
asking  such  questions. 

I.  We  have  to  recollect,  in  the  first  place, 
that  He  is  God,  I  shall  not  stop  here  to  try 
to  prove  that  there  is  a  God.  I  do  not  need 
to.  I  am  not  arguing  now  with  atheists.  I 
am  speaking  admittedly  to  those  who  do  believe 
in  God  and  in  prayer,  and  who  are  only  seeking 
to  understand  where  they  already  believe.  I 
therefore  assume  the  existence  of  God.  This 


I 


God  and  Prayer. 


is  just  what  the  Bible  itself  does ;  it  takes  God's 
existence  for  granted,  in  its  very  opening  sen- 
tence. But  why  ?  Because  all  men  do  practically 
believe  in  God ;  because  it  is  the  most  natural  of 
all  things  for  them  to  do  so ;  because  they  have 
to  force  themselves  not  to  believe  in  Him.  For 
not  merely  is  a  belief  in  God  not  unreasonable, 
it  is  the  very  ground  and  first  necessity  of  rea- 
son itself.  Without  it  reason  has  neither  a 
starting-place  nor  an  end — whatever  names  rea- 
son itself  may  choose  to  give  to  these.  Just 
because,  then,  such  a  belief  is  "  so  universal,  so 
necessary,  and  so  intuitive  in  men,  it  is  more 
certain  than  anything  can  be  made  by  mere 
process  of  reasoning.  It  lies  back  of  all  proof 
and  so  itself  needs  none."  l 

II.  Next,  we  have  to  recollect  what  kind  of 
a  being  God  is.  He  is  a  Person;  He  is  the 
Supreme  Being  of  all  this  vast  universe;  its 
Creator  and  First  Cause,  from  whom  all  forces 
in  it  take  their  rise. 

These  truths  are  taught  us  by  revelation,  but 
they  are  also  confirmed  by  reason.  Reason  can 
1  Le  Conte,  p.  12. 


How  Can  God  Hear  Prayer?         3 

never  be  satisfied  with  the  idea  of  God  as  a 
mere  impersonal,  unthinking,  unfeeling  life-force 
in  the  world.  Reason  looks  at  the  world  of 
nature  and  sees  everywhere  evidence  of  intelli- 
gent contrivance  and  design.  She  sees  it  in  in- 
numerable things  which  serve  both  for  use  and 
for  beauty,  from  the  marvelous  human  eye  or 
the  lovely  flower  at  our  feet  to  the  light-giving, 
life-sustaining  sun  above  our  heads  or  the  glori- 
ous harmonies  of  order  throughout  a  universe. 
Indeed,  we  have  the  express  admission  of  the 
very  highest  modern  authorities  both  in  theology 
and  in  science — of  men  like  the  Rev.  Dr.  Marti- 
neau  and  Professor  Carpenter — that  "  unless  it 
takes  more  mental  faculty  to  construe  [that  is, 
to  interpret]  a  universe  than  to  cause  it,  to  read 
the  book  of  nature  than  to  write  it,  we  must 
more  than  ever  look  upon  its  sublime  face  as 
the  appeal  of  Thought  to  thought."  1 

So  with  your  human  heart.  If  it  is  to  accept 
the  fact  of  a  God  at  all,  it  demands  a  God  who 
is  a  living  person,  one  whom  it  can  know  and 

1  Professor  William  B.  Carpenter,  "  On  Mind  and  Will  in 
Nature,"  "  Contemporary  Review,"  1872,  vol.  xx.,  p.  762. 


God  and  Prayer. 


with  whom  it  can  come  into  living  communion ; 
one  who  is  the  ideal  and  more  of  all  that  is 
highest  and  best  in  men  themselves ;  one  whom 
it  can  reverence  and  love  as  well  as  worship 
and  obey ;  one  with  whom  it  can  find  grace  to 
help  in  every  hour  of  need.  The  best  of  men, 
the  more  they  come  to  think  of  themselves  and 
of  God  at  all,  always  find  that  they  want  such  a 
God.  And  these  intuitions  of  the  human  heart, 
when  thus  strong  and  universal,  are,  in  such  a 
department  of  truth,  as  trustworthy  and  con- 
vincing as  the  clearest  conclusions  of  the  human 
j-eason. 

But  how  can  you  think  of  such  divine  intelli- 
gence and  character  except  as  belonging  to  a 
person;  to  a  person,  too,  who  is  self-existent, 
who  is  outside  nature  as  well  as  in  it,  and  also 
before  it  and  after  it ;  hence  one  who  is  supreme, 
also,  over  His  own  creation,  both  in  will  and  in 
power  ? 

III.   More  than  that :  God  is,  according  to  our 

faith,  not  merely  a  person;   He  is  also  "our 

/   Father  "  in  a  sense  infinitely  more  real  than  our 

earthly  parent  is.    And  if  He  be  such  a  Father, 


How  Can  God  Hear  Prayer?         5 

will  He  not  hear  the  cry  of  His  human  chil- 
dren? 

(1)  You  know  how  beautifully  and  tenderly 
this  truth  of  God's  Fatherhood  has  been   re- 
vealed to  us  in  Jesus  Christ.     That  is  reason 
sufficient  for  believing  it.     But  did  you  think 
that  there  are  no  other  reasons  for  believing  it  ? 

(2)  Martineau's  thought  is  just  as  true  in  re- 
verse :  the  human  mind,  which  can  understand 
and  follow  the  workings  of  the  divine  mind  in 
nature,  must  share  the  qualities  of  that  mind. 
We  trace  human  lineage  by  such  resemblances ; 
why  not  a  divine  Fatherhood  and  sonship  ? 

(3)  God's  moral  relationship  to   man  is  no 
less  apparent.      See,  for  instance,  how  it  be- 
comes   probable    on    grounds    of    the    purest 
reason.     I   quote  from  an   admirable  passage 
in  a  little  tract  by  the  Rev.  W.  W.  Newton, 
D.D.,  entitled  "  Why  I  am  a  Christian  "  (p.  22) : 
"Not   long   ago,"  he    says,  "a  young  college 
student  was  talking  about  the  difficulties  he  ex- 
perienced in  believing  in  the  Christian's  God. 
'  I  can  believe,'  he  said,  '  in  a  God  as  the  final 
law  which  rules  all  things,  but  I  cannot  believe 


God  and  Prayer. 


that  this  God  is  a  person.'  To  which  it  was 
replied,  '  You  are  but  three  steps  removed  from 
the  personal  God  of  the  Christian  faith.  ...  If 
this  law  which  you  are  willing  to  call  God  rules 
all  things,  it  must  rule  men ;  if  it  rules  men,  it 
must  rule  that  which  is  highest  in  men.  Now 
the  highest  in  man  is  his  moral  sense.  If, 
therefore,  this  final  law  called  God  rules  the 
moral  sense,  it  must  itself  be  moral;  if  it  be  a 
moral  law  which  rules  all  things  it  must  have  a 
character ;  if  law  has  a  moral  character,  it  must 
imply  personality ;  and  if  personality  is  admitted, 
then  the  old  Bible  doctrine  of  the  Fatherhood 
of  God  becomes  verified.'  " 

(4)  Physical  science  itself,  in  its  most  recent 
teachings,  goes  far  to  verify  the  same  truth. 
It,  too,  like  the  Scriptures,  points  to  man  as 
"  nature's  crown,  the  last  act  of  creation,"  or  at 
least  "  the  last  and  highest  term  of  evolution." 
It,  too,  shows  that  there  has  been  a  long  and 
elaborate  preparation  of  the  earth  through  all 
its  history,  inanimate  and  animate,  for  the  com- 
ing of  man.  But  why?  What  special  impor- 
tance thus  attaches  itself  to  man  ?  What  is  it  in 


How  Can  God  Hear  Prayer  ?         7 

a  human  being  which  thus  outweighs  in  value 
ten  thousand  worlds  of  lower  sentient  life  which 
have  come  and  gone  to  make  room  for  him? 
Does  not  this  scientific  fact  harmonize  perfectly 
with  the  scriptural  explanation  that  God  was 
about  to  "  make  man  in  His  own  image  " — "  in 
the  likeness  of  God  "  ?    Was  it  not  that  he  was 
about  to  appear  who  alone  of  all  earthly  crea- 
tures was  to  become  the  immortal  child  of  God  ? 
For  the  whole  significance  of  man's  present 
place  in  nature,  according  to  this  teaching  of 
science,  does  not  end  with  this  life.    "  According 
to  Darwinism,"  says  Professor  John  Fiske,  "  the 
creation  of  man  is  still  the  goal  toward  which 
nature  tended  from  the  beginning.     Not  the 
production  of  any  higher  creature,  but  the  per- 
fecting of  humanity,  is  to  be  the  glorious  con- 
summation of  nature's  long  and  tedious  work. 
Thus  we  suddenly  arrive  at  the  conclusion  that 
man  seems  now,  much  more  clearly  than  ever, 
the   chief  among  God's  creatures.   .   .   .  This 
psychical  development  of  man  is  destined  to  go 
on  in  the  future  as  it  has  gone  on  in  the  past. 
The  creative  energy  which  has  been  at  work 


8  God  and  Prayer. 

through  the  bygone  ages  of  eternity  is  not  go- 
ing to  become  quiescent  to-morrow.  .  .  .  From 
the  first  dawning  of  life  we  see  all  things  work- 
ing together  toward  one  mighty  goal,  the  evo- 
lution of  the  most  exalted  spiritual  qualities  of 
humanity.  ...  To  deny  the  everlasting  per- 
sistence of  the  spiritual  element  in  man  is  to 
rob  the  whole  process  of  its  meaning.  .  .  .  For 
my  own  part,  therefore,"  he  says,  "  I  believe  in 
the  immortality  of  the  soul  as  a  supreme  act  of 
faith  in  the  reasonableness  of  God's  work."1 
iAnd  what  is  the  meaning  of  such  a  destiny  of 
man,  I  ask,  if  it  be  not  that  he  is  the  child  of 
Him  who  decreed  it? 

(5)  But  even  if  God  is  such  a  Father,  will  He 
leave  the  care  of  a  universe  to  concern  Himself 
with  the  needs  and  prayers  of  individual  men  ? 
Can  we  reasonably  expect  Him  to  do  so? 
Scripture  teaches  us  that  God's  power  and  love 
are  no  less  plain  in  His  care  for  the  greatest 
things  than  for  the  smallest.  He  has  set  the 
sun  and  moon  and  stars  in  their  places,  each 
with  a  purpose  and  work  of  its  own;  yet  He 
i  "  Destiny  of  Man,"  pp.  31,  72,  113,  116. 


How  Can  God  Hear  Prayer?         9 

counts  the  very  hairs  of  our  heads  and  notes 
even  a  dying  sparrow.  But  what  does  physical 
science  say  on  this  point  ?  True,  when  it  points 
us  to  the  vastness  of  creation  and  to  the  general 
provision  for  the  good  of  the  whole,  the  individ- 
ual creature  does  seem  to  be  lost  sight  of.  But 
does  not  the  same  science  also  point  us  to  other 
facts  and  another  conclusion?  Use  your  mi- 
croscope as  well  as  your  telescope  and  see  the 
proofs  of  God's  infinite  painstaking.  See  how 
carefully  and  beautifully  the  eye  or  wing  of 
the  tiniest  insect  is  fashioned ;  it  is  no  less  per- 
fectly adapted  to  its  purpose  than  the  order  of 
a  planetary  system.  Shall  all  this  care  be  taken 
for  mere  creatures  of  a  day,  and  man — "  nature's 
crown,"  God's  own  child,  made  in  His  image — 
"  he  for  whose  abode  the  earth  was  prepared  i 
and  the  centuries  had  been  waiting  " — he  whom  i 
God  has  endowed  with  all  divine  gifts  of  con- 
scious intelligence,  moral  discernment,  and  free- 
dom of  will — will  God  give  no  heed  to  him 
when  he  prays?  Evolution  itself,  in  the  last 
analysis,  is  chiefly  concerned  not  with  the 
masses  of  living  creatures,  but  with  the  indi- 


i  o  God  and  Prayer. 

vidual;  and  in  its  crowning  work  in  man  is 
chiefly  concerned  with  the  development  of  those 
very  personal  traits  of  the  individual  which  fit 
him  for  likeness  and  companionship  with  God. 
"  If  God,"  said  Canon  Liddon,1  "  is  not  sup- 
posed to  be  mainly  interested  in  vast  accumu- 
lations of  senseless  matter,  if  there  be  in  the 
estimate  of  a  moral  being  other  and  worthier 
measures  of  greatness,  .  .  .  then  we  need  not 
acquiesce  in  any  depreciatory  estimate  of  man's 
claims  upon  the  ear  of  God." 
/  (6)  Again,  prayer  is  an  instinct,  the  cry  of 
dependence.  We  mark  it  everywhere  in  na- 
ture, from  the  open  mouths  of  the  young  birds 
in  their  nests  or  the  inarticulate  cry  of  the  babe 
in  arms,  to  the  loftiest  aspirations  and  longings 
of  the  human  soul.  "  The  cry  of  the  young  ra- 
ven brings  its  food  from  afar ;  .  .  .  for  that  cry 
has  power  to  move  the  emotions  and  muscles  of 
the  parent  bird  and  to  overcome  its  own  selfish 
appetite.  The  bleat  of  the  lamb  not  only  brings 
its  dam  to  its  side,  but  causes  the  secretion  of 
milk  in  her  udder." 2  Will  the  God  of  nature, 

1  "Elements,"  etc.,  p.  194.        2  Sir  James  Dawson. 


How  Can  God  Hear  Prayer?       n 

whom  we  believe  to  be  also  the  Father  of  spirits, 
will  He  give  to  every  other  living  thing  the 
satisfaction  its  nature  craves, — to  every  plant 
and  animal  its  proper  soil  and  climate  and 
food, — and  will  He  not  hear  His  human  chil- 
dren when  they  cry  for  help  ? 

And  so,  in  any  case,  whatever  the  theoretical 
difficulties  may  be,  we  must  believe,  if  we  be- 
lieve in  God  and  ourselves  at  all,  that  He  who 
has  sent  forth  the  Spirit  of  a  Son  into  our  hearts, 
whereby  we  cry,  "  Our  Father, "surely  will  hear 
our  prayers. 

IV.  But  still  the  question  presses,  HowozwGod 
hear  prayer  ?  And  here  we  must  recollect  that 
our  Father  is  (a)  Spirit  and  (the)  universal  Spirit. 

(i)  Half  the  practical  difficulties  connected 
with  prayer  come  from  forgetting  this  truth. 
We  indulge  in  such  mistaken,  unworthy  ideas 
about  God.  We  so  often  think  of  Him  as  if 
He  were  such  an  one  as  ourselves ;  as  if  He  were 
a  being  limited  in  presence  and  power,  and 
localized  somewhere  in  space,  even  in  heaven, 
but  nevertheless  separated  from  us  by  an  infi- 
nite distance  and  difference  of  interest.  Is  it  any 


1 2  God  and  Prayer. 

wonder  that,  with  such  thoughts  about  God,  we 
are  led  to  question  the  power  of  prayer?  For 
how,  we  think,  shall  we  overcome  those  vast  dis- 
tances between  us  and  Him  by  our  mere  human 
voice  or  longings  ?  How  shall  we  establish  com- 
munication with  such  a  hopelessly  absent  and 
preoccupied  God  ?  Why,  a  poor  Pariah  in  the 
jungles  of  India  might  more  reasonably  expect 
to  speak  directly  into  the  ear  of  his  empress  in 
England !  Yet  even  that,  in  these  days,  would 
not  be  impossible.  True,  certain  expressions 
in  Scripture  do  seem  to  warrant  such  ideas 
about  God.  Solomon  prayed,  "  Hear  Thou 
in  heaven,  O  God,  Thy  dwelling-place;"  and 
Jesus  Himself  taught  us  to  pray,  "  Our  Father, 
which  art  in  heaven."  In  both  these  instances 
the  language  is  popular  and  the  idea  intended 
to  draw  a  special  distinction — in  the  one  case 
from  an  earthly  dwelling-place,  and  in  the  other 
from  an  earthly  parent.  But  when  Scripture 
comes  to  speak  definitively  on  such  a  subject 
it  leaves  no  room  for  mistake.  God,  said  Jesus 
on  another  occasion,  God  is  not  to  be  thought 
of  as  if  He  could  be  approached  or  worshiped  in 


How  Can  God  Hear  Prayer?       13 

any  one  place  alone :  "'God  is  a  Spirit :  and  they 
that  worship  Him  must  worship  Him  in  spirit 
and  in  truth."  l  God,  said  St.  Paul,  too,  is  not 
far  off  from  any  one  of  us  (or,  as  Faber  so 
beautifully  puts  it,  "  God  is  never  so  far  off  as  / 
even  to  be  near  ") :  "  For  in  Him  we  live,  and 
move,  and  have  our  being."  2  So  intimate  is 
the  presence  of  His  Spirit  with  our  spirits  that 
"  the  very  thoughts  and  intents  of  pur  hearts  " 
are  all  known  unto  Him. 

Here  is  the  true  idea  of  God  'and  of  our  re- 
lations to  Him.  And  this  being  so,  do  we  not 
begin  to  see  how  it  is  that  God  can  speak  to  us 
and  can  hear  us  when  we  speak  to  Him  ? 

(2)  Perhaps,  though,  while  you  do  not  deny 
the  fact,  you  will  say  that  any  such  intimate 
association  of  God's  Spirit  with  our  spirits  is 
utterly  unthinkable  by  you.  You  do  not 
understand  how  it  can  be — how  God,  the 
universal  Spirit,  can  dwell  in  you,  and  you  at 
the  same  time  dwell  in  Him.  You  never  can 
understand  this  perfectly,  but  you  can  get  per- 
haps some  idea  of  the  fact. 

*  St.  John  iv.  24.  *  Acts  xvii.  28. 


14  God  and  Prayer. 

(a)  Consider  the  analogy  of  physical  forces. 
You  remember  that  homely  instance  of  identical 
presence,  the  iron  in  the  fire  and  the  fire  in 
the  iron.  Or  take  a  wider  range :  think  of  that 
which  is,  for  us,  practically  a  universal  substance, 
the  atmosphere.  It  envelops  the  earth  to  a 
distance  of  many  miles  in  all  directions,  and  yet 
penetrates,  through  the  lungs  and  blood,  every 
smallest  fiber  of  your  body.  You  dwell  in  it,  and 
it  dwells  in  you.  How  your  very  physical  life 
depends  upon  it!  You  could  not  breathe  with- 
out it;  you  could  not  speak  a  single  word  or 
hear  one  without  it.  Again,  back  of  the  atmo- 
sphere, if  the  assumption  of  physical  science  be 
correct,  lies  another  substance  called  the  ether — 
far  more  subtle  and  widely  diffused ;  filling  all  the 
otherwise  empty  spaces  of  the  universe ;  bring- 
ing you  the  light  of  the  sun  and  moon  and  stars ; 
enabling  that  light  to  come  to  you  through  that 
solid  pane  of  glass,  or  the  heat  of  that  stove  to 
come  to  you  through  its  solid  sides  of  iron. 
Still  another  practically  universal  substance  or 
force  you  know  by  the  name  of  electricity.  You 
find  it  everywhere  present  in  this  earthly  dwell- 


How  Can  God  Hear  Prayer?       15 

ing-place  of  ours,  from  the  fur  of  the  cat 
which  lies  at  your  feet  to  the  aurora  borealis 
above  your  head  or  the  great  magnetic  cur- 
rent which  encircles  the  globe.  You  dwell  in 
it ;  you  are  perfectly  conscious  physically  of  any 
disturbance  in  the  electrical  conditions  of  the 
atmosphere.  It  dwells  in  you ;  shake  hands 
with  some  one  on  a  clear,  frosty  midwinter 
morning  and  you  quickly  learn  the  fact.  How 
close  and  vital  that  connection  is  with  our 
physical  life  and  happiness  we  are  beginning  to 
realize  to-day  as  never  before.  You  remember 
that  famous  fresco  by  Michelangelo  in  the  Sis- 
tine  Chapel,  called  "  The  Creation  of  Adam." 
The  hand  of  God  seems  stretching  out  from  a 
cloud,  touching  the  tip  of  Adam's  forefinger 
with  the  tip  of  His  own  forefinger,  animating 
Adam's  as  yet  lifeless  form  with  the  electric 
spark  of  life.  It  is  a  wonderfully  significant 
picture.  And  if  your  very  physical  being  is 
thus  enwrapped  and  penetrated  by  physical  sub- 
stances or  forces  which  are  practically  universal, 
do  you  not  find  a  hint  here  of  what  is  possible, 
or  at  least  conceivable,  in  your  spiritual  life  ? 


1 6  God  and  Prayer. 

(b)  Or  look  at  the  fact  of  your  own  personal 
presence  or  influence.  See  its  character  and 
range.  It  is  not  limited  by  your  mere  bodily 
presence  or  powers.  You  are  perfectly  con- 
scious that  you  yourself,  your  spirit,  is  some- 
thing separate  from  and  superior  to  them.  How 
strange  and  yet  how  real  is  that  power  we  have 
of  making  ourselves  felt  by  others,  not  only 
across  a  room,  but  across  a  continent!  Our 
thoughts,  our  purposes,  our  sympathies,  our 
example,  go  out  from  us  in  all  directions,  and 
may  become  almost  endless  influences  over 
other  men  for  good  or  for  evil.  A  whole  civ- 
ilized world  to  the  end  of  time,  perhaps,  may 
feel  the  personal  influence  of  one  great  soul. 
There  is  hardly  an  earthly  or,  for  that  matter, 
a  heavenly  limit  to  the  effect  of  our  human 
spirits  in  and  upon  one  another. 

Is  the  thought  of  a  personal,  universal,  in- 
dwelling, all-influencing  divine  Spirit,  then,  any 
less  conceivable  or  reasonable?  If  all  life  in 
us  is  only  a  gift  of  the  life  divine ;  if  all  reason 
in  us  is  only  a  spark  of  the  light  divine;  if 
affection  in  us  is  only  an  impulse  of  the  love 


How  Can  God  Hear  Prayer?       1 7 

divine,  and  conscience  an  echo  of  the  voice  di- 
vine, and  our  free  will  a  stirring  of  the  power 
divine — if  we  can  think  and  say  all  this,  as  we  are 
accustomed  to,  why  should  it  seem  impossible 
to  think  or  absurd  to  say  that  God  actually 
dwells  in  us  and  we  in  Him?  For  remember 
that  we  are  not  to  think  of  God  only  as  "  mere 
hugeness,  filling  all  space  with  only  a  divided 
life  and  energy,  as  our  bodies  occupy  only  a 
portion  of  space,  but  as  dwelling  with  His  com- 
plete and  undivided  life  and  energy  everywhere 
and  at  once,"1  in  the  soul  of  each  one  of  us  as 
truly  as  on  the  throne  of  the  universe. 

(3)  And  yet  what  do  we  mean  by  that  word 
"  spirit "  ?  Does  it  convey  any  distinct  idea  to 
our  minds  ?  What  proof  is  there  that  there  is 
any  such  thing  as  "spirit"  in  God  or  in  us? 
Just  the  same  kind  of  proof  as  we  have  that 
there  is  such  a  thing  as  "matter."  We  can 
define  matter  by  its  phenomena — by  what  we 
know  of  it  through  our  senses;  but  what  it 
really  is  in  its  very  essence  no  one  knows. 
So  spirit  may  be  defined  as  something  which 
i  L«  Conte,  p.  86. 


1 8  God  and  Prayer. 

lies  back  of  phenomena — "  something  which 
thinks  and  feels,  and  works  through  matter;" 
but  what  it  is  in  its  very  essence  neither  does 
any  one  know.  But  I  ask  you  to  notice  that 
our  belief  nevertheless  in  its  existence  rests  on 
just  as  sure  a  basis  and  on  just  the  same  kind 
of  basis  as  our  belief  in  the  existence  of  matter. 
One  is  the  direct  revelation  of  our  senses,  the 
other  the  direct  revelation  of  our  conscious- 
ness. Both  are  immediate,  intuitive,  univer- 
sal; both  are  equally  certain  and  independent 
of  proof;  both  are  starting-points  of  reason — 
matter  perceived,  spirit  perceiving.  In  short, 
without  belief  in  spirit,  just  as  without  belief  in 
matter,  there  could  be  neither  philosophy  nor 
science.  Even  science  itself  is  being  forced  to 
admit  that  in  these  days.1  So  that  when  we 
come,  with  the  Scriptures,  to  speak  of  God  as 
Spirit,  we  are  justified  in  saying  that  nature 
itself  reveals  such  a  God — a  God  who  "  thinks 
and  feels  and  works  everywhere  around  us  and 
within  us,  and  yet  is  not  seen  by  us."  And 
so,  when  we  come  to  speak  of  ourselves  as 

1  See  Romanes's  "  Thoughts  on  Religion, "  passim. 


How  Can  God  Hear  Prayer?       19 

spirits,  it  is  because  we  too  are  able  to  think 
and  feel  and  will  and  work,  and  even,  as  we  be- 
lieve, to  hold  communion  with  that  Father  of 
spirits  in  prayer. 

(a)  If  you  still  ask  how,   apart  from   such 
reasoning,  you  are  to  realize  this  world  of  spirit, 
the  simple  answer  is,  just  as  you  realize  the 
world  of  matter — by  living  and  working  in  it. 
Shut  yourself  up  in  a  room  and  you  can  reason 
yourself,  just  as  many  a  man  has  done  before 
you,  into  the  idea  that  there  is  no  such  thing  as 
the  external  world ;  that  what  you  call  such  is 
only  "  the  delusive  image  of  certain  interior 
states  of  your  own  mind."     But  open  your  door, 
go  out  into  that  world  itself,  go  your  usual 
round  in  it,  or  strike  your  toe  against  some    / 
good-sized  stone,  and  your  faith  in  the  reality 

of  material  things  instantly  returns.  So  with 
regard  to  the  spirit- world.  You  know  that  there 
is  such  a  thing  not  merely  by  reasoning  about 
it,  but  by  living,  loving,  praying,  and  working  in 
it.  God  and  the  soul  require  no  further  proof. 

(b)  One  other  question  ought  to  be  answered 
here :  How  does  spirit  in  man  differ  from  life  in 


2O  God  and  Prayer. 

all  other  living  things?  Does  not  a  dog  think 
and  feel  and  will  ?  May  not  "  spirit "  in  man, 
then,  be  no  more  than  just  animal  life,  the  mere 
product  of  organization  or  the  result  of  trans- 
formed physical  and  chemical  forces?  Our  one 
reassurance  in  the  face  of  such  doubts  is  in  ap- 
peal to  the  testimony  of  our  own  consciousness. 
We  know  that  we  are  something  more  and  bet- 
ter than  mere  animals,  however  we  came  to  be 
so.  We  know  that  there  is  something  in  us 
which  is  not  in  them;  something  which  does 
want  and  does  find  satisfaction  in  things  moral, 
spiritual,  divine.  Above  all,  that  life  in  us 
which  we  call  "  spiritual "  has  independence  in 
a  peculiar  sense.  We  are  free  in  the  region  of 
thought  and  in  the  realm  of  physical  and  moral 
law  as  mere  animals  are  not.  We  can  con- 
sciously control  and  direct  the  forces  of  nature 
even  while  we  submit  to  them  ;  we  have  liberty 
in  our  moral  judgment  and  choice ;  we  are  free 
to  will  and  act  in  all  things,  and,  best  of  all,  this 
thing  in  us  which  we  call  "  spirit "  recognizes 
its  own  freedom  and  rejoices  in  it;  it  knows 
itself.  No  research  into  nature,  no  philosophy 


How  Can  God  Hear  Prayer  ?       21 

of  men,  has  ever  been  able  to  bridge  this  enor- 
mous chasm  and  identify  spiritual  life  with  that 
which  is  merely  animal.  That  conscious  free- 
dom of  ours  is  a  gift  from  above,  not  a  develop- 
ment from  below.  Its  real  greatness  and  true 
source  have  been  strikingly  suggested  in  this 
way:  if  all  life  in  the  world  is  thinkable  as 
being  only  the  outworkings  of  the  one  divine 
Spirit,  why  is  not  the  spirit  of  man  thinkable 
as  this  same  divine  Spirit  "  individuated  into  a 
self-conscious  person"?  We  think  of  our  sun 
throwing  off  its  planets,  all  parts  of  the  parent 
sun,  all  bound  back  to  it  by  the  invisible  spell 
of  gravity,  yet  each  having  a  separate  existence 
and  form  of  its  own.  May  we  not  think  of  our 
spirits  as  standing  in  some  such  relation  to  the 
great  Father  of  spirits,  only  with  this  enormous 
difference:  we  are  self-conscious,  with  a  mind 
and  will  of  our  own,  having  the  perilous  power 
of  absolute  moral  independence  of  God  if  we 
will ;  power  to  break  the  bond  of  religion  which 
"  binds  "  us  "  back  "  in  faith  and  loving  obedi- 
ence to  Him,  and,  like  a  flying  meteor  or  a  re- 
bellious Satan,  go  hurtling  off  headlong  to  ever- 


2  2  God  and  Prayer. 

lasting  destruction?  And,  on  the  other  hand, 
may  we  not  also  think  most  worthily  of  our  spir- 
its— these  same  "  self-conscious  emanations  of 
Deity  " — as  struggling  up  in  their  very  freedom 
(especially  by  prayer)  to  recognize  their  own 
source  in  God;  and  so  finally  reaching  their 
last  term  of  aspiration  and  evolution  in  a  per- 
fect reunion  with  Him ;  not  reabsorbed  into  Him 
in  a  death-like  Nirvana,  but  still  holding  con- 
scious, loving,  active,  filial,  free,  and  most  blessed 
communion  with  Him  in  that  highest  liberty 
which  is  always  under  law?1 

(4)  And  so,  finally,  as  to  who  and  what  this 
God  is  to  whom  we  would  pray,  and  what  we 
are  who  would  pray  to  Him ;  it  is  of  reason  as 
well  as  of  faith  that  He  is  a  personal  God,  that 
He  is  our  Father,  and  that  He  is  a  universal 
Spirit  dwelling  in  us,  and  we  finite  spirits  dwell- 
ing in  Him.  We  have  seen  that  it  is  not  only 
reasonable  to  believe  that  God  can  and  will 
speak  to  us,  but  also  that  He  can  and  will  hear 
us  when  we  speak  to  Him.  But  such  a  possibil- 

1  For  the  suggestion  of  these  last  three  paragraphs,  see  Le 
Conte,  pp.  63,  272-277. 


How  Can  God  Hear  Prayer?       23 

ity  is  more  than  a  matter  of  mere  guesses  or  even 
of  reason.  Here  in  this  holy  book  which  we 
call  the  Word  of  God  is  a  record  of  the  convic- 
tions of  mankind  from  the  beginning  that  God 
has  so  spoken  to  them  in  the  inner  man  and  has 
heard  them  when  they  have  so  spoken  to  Him. 
We  have  a  reasonable  right  to  trust  that  record 
as  we  do  the  like  witness  of  our  own  experience. 
We  must  do  it  if  we  would  pray  effectively. 
We  must  ask  "  in  faith,  nothing  wavering :  for 
he  that  wavereth  is  like  a  wave  of  the  sea  driven 
with  the  wind  and  tossed.  For  let  not  that  man 
think  that  he  shall  receive  anything  of  the 
Lord."  i  "  He  that  cometh  to  God  must  [first 
of  all]  believe  that  He  is,  and  that  He  is  a  re- 
warder  of  them  that  diligently  seek  Him." 2 

i  St.  James  1.  6,  7.  a  Heb.  xL  6. 


LECTURE   II. 

HOW  CAN   GOD   ANSWER   PRAYER? 

BUT  now,  granting  that  there  is  a  God,  and 
that  He  both  can  and  will  hear  prayer,  still,  how 
can  God  answer  prayer  ? 

I.  We  ask  Him,  for  instance,  for  such  mate- 
rial things  as  food  and  clothing,  for  healing  in 
sickness  and  protection  in  danger,  for  fair 
weather  and  good  crops,  for  national  prosperity 
and  success  in  war.  How  can  God  answer 
prayer  for  such  things?  How  does  He  do  it? 
Is  He  not  a  Spirit  ?  Can  we  reasonably  expect 
Him  to  concern  Himself  with  such  material 
things  ?  Is  it  a  proper  purpose  of  prayer  to  try 
to  induce  Him  to  do  so? 

(i)  In  the  first  place,  we  should  remind  our- 
selves just  here  that,  while  Christianity  teaches 
24 


How  Can  God  Answer  Prayer?     25 

a  very  positive  doctrine  of  providence,  it  also 
teaches  a  very  distinct  kind  of  prayer  in  con- 
nection with  it.  Jesus  teaches  us  that  God 
cares  for  our  bodies  as  truly  as  for  our  souls, 
that  He  will  feed  us  as  surely  as  He  does  the 
birds,  and  clothe  us  as  certainly  as  He  does  the 
flowers.  Indeed,  He  says  that  our  heavenly 
Father  knows  that  we  have  need  of  all  these 
things  before  we  ask  Him.  He  intimates  that 
God  has  made,  as  in  the  sunlight  and  the  rain, 
a  fixed  provision  for  the  bodily  needs  of  all 
mankind,  and  this  whether  they  are  good 
or  evil,  whether  they  pray  to  Him  or  not. 
Therefore,  even  while  He  teaches  us  to  pray, 
"  Give  us  this  day  our  daily  bread,"  Jesus  also 
says  to  us,  "  Have  no  anxiety  about  such  things. 
Seek  first  the  kingdom  of  God,  and  His  right- 
eousness; and  all  these  things  shall  be  added 
unto  you."  In  other  words,  the  kind  of  prayer 
which  we  ought  to  offer  about  such  things  is  not 
so  much  one  of  petition — that  is,  of  anxious 
asking — as  one  of  perfect  trust,  of  entire  self- 
committal  in  all  our  earthly  interests  to  God's 
loving  care.  There  is  no  wrong,  of  course,  in 


26  God  and  Prayer. 

our  continuing  to  ask  even  where  we  do  fully 
trust.  We  ought,  for  instance,  to  ask  for  God's 
blessing  on  all  our  own  efforts  for  self-support. 
Indeed,  there  are  many  excellent  and  beautiful 
reasons  in  our  relations  to  God  as  a  Father 
which  justify  such  continued  asking,  so  long  as 
it  is  always  in  the  spirit  which  our  Lord  suggests. 
(2)  But  it  may  be  objected  here :  Even  if  it  be 
consistent  with  the  infinite  goodness  of  God  for 
us  to  continue  to  ask  where  we  believe  that  He 
has  already  provided,  still,  how  are  we  to  recon- 
cile the  thought  of  answered  prayer  with  that 
of  the  divine  foreordination  ?  If  all  things  are 
eternally  foreseen  and  foreordered  by  God,  what 
room  is  left  here  for  the  operation  of  prayer? 
My  getting  what  I  need  in  body  and  soul  must 
either  have  been  arranged  for  by  God  from  all 
eternity,  or  it  is  dependent  on  my  prayers ;  it 
cannot  be  both.  Now  we  have  to  admit,  of 
course,  that  the  whole  subject  at  this  point  is 
beyond  the  full  grasp  of  our  minds.  We  can- 
not dispose  of  all  the  difficulties  connected  with 
it ;  but  we  can  do  this :  we  can  claim  all  the  facts 
on  both  sides  without  demanding  an  absolutely 


How  Can  God  A  nswer  Prayer  ?     27 

satisfactory  agreement  in  them,  and  then  leave 
their  final  reconciliation  to  Him  who  has  taught 
us  to  pray.     We  do  believe,  for  instance,  that 
God  is  omniscient  and  foresees  and  foreorders 
all  things ;  but  we  also  know  from  our  own  con- 
sciousness, as  certainly  as  we  know  anything, 
that  we  human  beings  are  absolutely  free  to  will 
and  act  as  we  choose.    So  with  God's  sovereignty 
and  answers  to  our  prayers.     We  do  not  see 
how  such  answers  can  be  reconciled  in  thought 
with  the  divine  foresight  and  foreordination ; 
but  we  are  also  sure,  so  far  as  our  requests  for 
spiritual  help  are  concerned,  that  our  prayers 
are  answered.     In  other  words,  however  neces- 
sary absolute  foreordination  by  God  may  seem 
in  the  abstract,  practically  there  is  a  limit  to  it. 
"  The  opinion  of  necessity,"  says  Bishop  But- 
ler, "  considered  as  practical  is  false."    So  there 
is  but  one  way  left  us  of  thinking  here  of  the 
operation  of  prayer,  and  that  is  this:  the  God 
who   encourages  prayer  must  somehow  have 
made  allowance  for  it.     Even  so  high  an  au- 
thority as  Canon  Liddon  takes  this  view  of  the 
matter.    "  Prayer,"  he  says,  "  is  only  a  foreseen 


28  God  and  Prayer. 

action  which,  together  with  its  results,  is  em- 
braced in  the  eternal  predestination  of  God.  .  .  . 
God  works  out  His  plans  not  merely  in  us,  but 
by  us."  i 

(3)  But  now  comes  an  objector  from  another 
standpoint  and  says :  "  Over  and  above  the  diffi- 
culties in  the  nature  of  God  Himself  there  are 
other  difficulties  connected  with  His  very  works 
in  the  world  of  nature.  This  world  of  nature  is  a 
world  of  law.  All  things  go  on  in  the  natural  uni- 
verse from  the  beginning  in  a  perfect  sequence 
of  cause  and  effect.  This  natural  order  of 
things  is  fixed  and  invariable.  God  could  not 
interfere  with  it  to  answer  your  prayers  for  ma- 
terial blessings  without  violating  the  laws  which 
He  has  Himself  imposed  on  nature  and  so  caus- 
ing endless  confusion  and  ruin."  As  if  God  had 
somehow  created  the  world  like  a  great  clock, 
and  set  it  a-going,  and  were  now  afraid  to  touch 
it,  lest,  like  some  meddlesome  boy,  He  should 
get  His  fingers  into  the  works  and  stop  it. 

(a)  But  now  notice  that  these  "  laws  "  of  na- 
ture are  not  such  in  any  sense  which  makes 
i  "  Elements,"  etc.,  p.  193. 


How  Can  God  Answer  Prayer?     29 

them  necessarily  independent  of  God.  There  is 
nothing  to  show  that  they  have  any  real  exis- 
tence in  themselves.  They  are  merely  conve- 
nient formulae  for  us ;  that  is  to  say,  they  are  our 
way  of  speaking  of  certain  of  God's  ways  of 
thinking  and  working  in  the  natural  world.  Our 
observation  of  these  ways,  even  if  our  experi- 
ence be  so  far  uniform,  is  confessedly  limited. 
How  do  we  know  that  God  has  not  at  the  same 
time  other  ways  of  thinking  and  working  ?  At 
any  rate,  what  right  have  we  to  assume  that 
God's  own  laws  are  laws  of  bondage  to  Him  and 
not  rather  laws  of  freedom  ?  Our  own  ideas  of 
moral  self-control,  our  own  experience  of  civil 
self-government,  ought  to  teach  us  better. 

(b)  But,  it  may  be  said,  is  not  God  in  His 
own  nature  an  unchangeable  God;  and  does 
not  that  fact  alone  imply  the  invariability  of  His 
laws?  Yes,  so  far  as  His  moral  nature  is  con- 
cerned ;  He  cannot  be  just  to-day  and  unjust 
to-morrow.  But  this  does  not  imply  that  He 
is  not  free  in  His  executive  nature ;  that  is,  free 
to  will  and  act  in  the  natural  world.  At  least, 
it  cannot  be  proved  that  He  is  not  so  free. 


30  God  and  Prayer. 

(c)  And  so  with  regard  to  the  so-called 
"  forces  "  of  nature,  we  have  no  more  right  to 
say  that  they  are  beyond  the  control  of  God  for 
special  purposes  than  the  laws  according  to 
which  they  work.  They  certainly  are  not  if 
they  are  the  creations  of  God  Himself,  much 
less  if  God  Himself  is  also  in  them  and  work- 
ing through  them. 

They  are  not  even  beyond  the  control  of 
human  will  and  skill.  For  consider  what  men 
have  done  and  are  doing  all  the  time  by  the 
help  of  that  very  science  which  sometimes 
seems  disposed  to  deny  to  God  Himself  the 
same  power.  You  never  lift  your  arm  to 
throw  a  stone  into  the  air;  you  never  drink  a 
glass  of  water  which  has  been  forced  uphill,  per- 
haps, to  your  very  door;  you  never  use  a  tele- 
graph or  telephone,  or  ride  on  a  steam-car,  or 
use  any  one  of  the  thousands  of  articles  manu- 
factured by  machinery,  that  you  may  not  see 
how  men  are  all  the  time  taking  the  forces  of 
nature,  using  them,  controlling  them,  adapting 
them  to  their  own  ideas  and  ends,  and  doing  it 
with  the  greatest  ease.  Nor  are  these  triumphs 


How  Can  God  Answer  Prayer  ?    31 

of  man  limited  only  to  the  control  of  natural 
facts  and  forces  as  he  finds  them ;  he  can  even 
improve  on  nature's  own  work.  See  how  he 
does  it,  for  instance,  in  the  fields  of  agriculture, 
floriculture,  and  stock-breeding.  "There  are 
respects,"  wrote  Henry  Ward  Beecher,  "in 
which  natural  laws  are  beyond  human  interfer- 
ence and  control.  Such  are  the  great  laws 
which  bind  the  stellar  universe  together.  .  .  . 
But  there  is  another  class  of  laws  meant  to  min- 
ister directly  to  human  life.  ...  Of  these  I 
affirm,"  he  says,  "that  they  do  not  perform 
their  [perfect]  function  until  they  are  controlled 
and  directed  by  human  mind  and  will.  Look  at 
nature's  fruits.  There  is  but  a  beginning  in 
natural  fruits,  and  they  never,  when  left  to  na- 
ture alone,  reach  beyond  that  point.  When  a 
man  finds  a  crab-apple  in  the  woods  he  would 
not  willingly  find  it  more  than  once ;  yet,  brought 
to  his  own  orchard,  it  becomes  a  fine  fruit.  Did 
nature  make  the  pippin?  Nature  had  been  try- 
ing for  years  and  never  got  beyond  the  crab- 
apple.  .  .  .  Nature  can  make  iron,  but  she 
never  made  a  sword;  she  never  made  a  jack- 


32  God  and  Prayer. 

knife,  a  steam-engine,  a  knife  and  fork — nothing 
but  cold,  dead  iron."  l  And  yet  notice  that  in 
all  these  human  manipulations  of  the  forces  of 
nature  there  is  no  "  violation  "  of  the  laws  of 
nature.  There  is  often  the  suspension  of  the 
operation  of  one  law  by  introducing  the  more 
forceful  operation  of  another,  there  are  combi- 
nations and  adjustments  of  forces,  but  no  viola- 
tion of  law.  All  forces  of  nature  are  used  ex- 
actly in  accordance  with  the  laws  under  which 
they  were  meant  to  operate.  Indeed,  the  suc- 
cess of  human  skill  is  exactly  proportioned  to 
the  extent  to  which  the  laws  of  nature  are 
obeyed. 

Thus  we  come  to  realize  that  there  has  at 
length  been  introduced  into  the  world,  in  the 
human  will,  an  entirely  new  and  independent 
force;  a  force  which  has  to  be  taken  into  con- 
sideration in  the  question  of  what  is  possible  or 
impossible  in  the  operation  of  other  forces  in  the 
natural  world.  Indeed,  not  only  is  will  power 
the  only  really  independent  force  of  which  it  is 
possible  to  conceive,  but  so  unique  is  it  in  the 

1  "  Aids  to  Prayer,"  pp.  63-67. 


How  Can  God  Answer  Prayer  f 

history  of  the  universe  that  its  existence  in  man 
becomes  proof  positive  that  God  has  already  in- 
terfered with  the  previously  established  course 
of  things.  And  shall  we,  in  the  face  of  such 
a  fact,  deny  the  possibility  in  God  Himself 
of  such  a  reserve  force  of  will  power  as  will 
enable  Him  still  further,  at  His  own  pleasure 
or  on  the  strength  of  our  prayers,  to  make  new 
dispositions  in  the  natural  course  of  things? 

(d}  Consider  here,  again,  the  bearing  of  that 
doctrine  of  modern  physical  science  called  "  the 
correlation  of  forces."  It  is  this:  all  the  facts 
of  the  natural  universe  are,  in  the  last  analysis, 
reducible  to  two,  viz.,  matter  and  force.  In 
other  words,  all  natural  "  forces" — or  what  we 
are  accustomed  to  speak  of  as  such  (e.g., 
light,  heat,  gravity,  electricity) — are  really  not 
so  many  separate  forces,  but  simply  separate 
forms  of  working  of  one  great  universal  fact  of 
force.  What  a  startling  conclusion!  What  a 
strikingly  fresh  witness  by  science  itself  to  the 
unity  of  purpose,  and  so  the  unity  of  origin,  of 
all  things  in  nature!  For  what,  now,  we  ask, 
is  this  universal  force  ?  What  is  it  in  any  one 


34  God  and  Prayer. 

of  its  particular  forms?  What  is  light  or  heat 
or  gravity  or  electricity?  Do  you  know? 
Does  any  one  know?  What,  then,  if  this  uni- 
versal fact  of  force  be  a  living  will,  the  liv- 
ing will  of  the  one  universal  Spirit,  God  Him- 
self, going  forth  into  action?  Is  it  not  so 
that  Scripture  itself  teaches  us  to  think  of  the 
initial  entrance  of  force  into  the  world?  Is 
it  not  God's  "  Spirit "  which  is  represented 
as  moving  "  in  the  beginning "  on  the  face  of 
chaos  and  giving  it  its  first  impulse  toward 
order?  Was  it  not  His  will,  expressing  itself  in 
His  word,  which  brought  about  creation  ?  Did 
He  not  simply  say,  "  Let  there  be  light,"  and 
there  was  light  ?  Did  not  Jesus  say,  "  My 
Father  worketh  hitherto,  and  I  work  "  ?  And 
did  not  St.  John  declare  that  "without  the 
Word  was  not  anything  made  that  was  made  "  ? 
In  other  words,  in  view  of  what  men  them- 
selves are  doing,  is  this  thought  of  the  living 
God  Himself  working  in  and  through  all  natural 
forces  an  unreasonable  one  ?  And  shall  we  deny 
to  His  supreme  will  the  same  safe  and  indepen- 
dent control  of  those  forces,  even  in  answer  to 


How  Can  God  Answer  Prayer  f     35 

prayer,  as  we  ourselves  exercise  under  the  im- 
pulse of  our  own  desires  and  wills  ? 

(e)  On  the  other  hand,  this  is  to  be  said,  that, 
even  granting  the  invariability  of  natural  laws, 
the  fact  is  in  many  ways  only  to  our  advantage. 
It  is  the  best  possible  guaranty  we  can  have  of 
God's  constant  provision  for  all  human  physical 
needs.  It  is  just  this  which  makes  us  sure  of 
the  regular  return  of  the  seasons  and  of  the 
annual  harvests,  that  the  revolving  earth  will 
continue  to  go  on  its  appointed  way,  and  the 
stars  keep  their  places  while  we  sleep.  In 
any  case,  we  must  not  expect  God  to  interfere 
capriciously  with  the  order  of  the  universe, 
even  to  answer  our  prayers.  I  say  we  must 
not  expect  Him  ordinarily  to  so  interfere.  Only 
it  is  absurd  to  say  that  God  cannot  interfere, 
and  impossible  to  prove  that  He  will  not  inter- 
fere for  sufficient  cause.  What  man  can  do  God 
certainly  can. 

(4)  Just  here  let  us  stop  a  moment  now  to 
recall  the  famous  "prayer  test,"  which  created 
such  excitement  and  discussion  a  few  years 
ago.  A  writer  in  one  of  the  English  magazines 


36  God  and  Prayer. 

proposed  to  "  test  the  physical  value  of  prayer."1 
Prayer  is  constantly  being  offered,  he  claimed, 
for  all  sorts  of  material  blessings — for  victory 
in  battle,  for  good  crops,  for  protection  of  those 
at  sea,  for  the  recovery  of  the  sick,  etc.  As  a 
test  case,  he  proposed  that  all  patients  of  a 
given  sort  in  one  ward  of  some  hospital  should, 
for  a  series  of  years,  be  treated  as  usual  and 
also  prayed  for  by  all  who  would.  At  the  end 
of  the  given  period  the  death-rate  was  to  be  com- 
pared with  that  of  other  years  in  the  same  class 
of  cases  which  had  been  medically  treated  with- 
out prayer.  It  seemed  to  the  majority  of  the 
Christian  public  a  blasphemous  proposition ;  but 
it  was  not  that.  It  was  not  even  meant  to  be  ir- 
reverent, but  it  would  have  been  irreverent  to 
have  consented  to  it.  Indeed,  the  real  spirit  of 
the  test  depended  altogether  upon  the  point  of 
view.  Professor  Tyndall,  for  instance,  the  prin- 
cipal advocate  of  the  test,  argued  as  follows: 
Prayer  is,  as  a  matter  of  fact  (especially  in  such 
a  case  as  that  for  the  sick),  put  forward  as  a 

1  Seethe"  Contemporary  Review,"  1872,  vol.  xx.,pp.  205, 
430.  763- 


How  Can  God  Answer  Prayer  ?    37 

form  of  physical  energy.  As  such,  if  physical 
science  is  to  recognize  it  at  all,  it  is  subject,  like 
all  other  physical  factors,  to  physical  test.  He 
had  no  desire  to  extinguish  prayer,  he  said,  but 
only  to  confine  it  to  what  he  regarded  as  its 
proper  sphere.  He  only  wanted  to  destroy 
delusions  about  it.  He  was  perfectly  willing 
to  admit  "  the  inherent  reasonableness  of 
prayer  "  to  a  God  who  is  regarded  as  a  "  uni- 
versal Father,  and  who,  in  answer  to  the  prayers 
of  His  children,  alters  the  current  of  natural 
phenomena."  But  for  the  purposes  of  science, 
he  argued,  any  such  conclusion  as  to  the  phys- 
ical value  of  prayer  must  be  verified.  It  must 
be  based,  like  all  other  physical  facts,  "  on  pure 
science." 

(a)  Now  I  maintain  that  from  the  standpoint 
of  physical  science  that  was  a  perfectly  reason- 
able and  proper  proposition,  but  from  the  stand- 
point of  the  Christian  faith  it  seemed  and  was 
something  very  different.  We  Christians  do 
claim  physical  results  from  prayer,  but  we  also 
claim  that  prayer  is,  in  itself  and  in  its  whole 
operation,  something  far  more  than  mere  phys- 


Q  7  - 

s/    «     « 


-/'  n ") 


3 8  God  and  Prayer. 

ical  energy.  It  also  contains  an  indeterminate 
and  indeterminable  factor,  a  spiritual  element, 
which  is  nothing  less  than  the  sovereign  will  of 
God  Himself.  That  will  is  dependent  on  mani- 
fold conditions  utterly  unknown  to  us.  Its  value 
as  a  factor  in  prayer  effects  is  therefore  not  to 
be  measured  by  any  merely  physical  test.  For 
Christians  to  have  consented  to  such  a  test  would 
have  been  both  unreasonable  and  unfair,  to  start 
with. 

(V)  But,  more  than  this ;  the  proposer  of  the 
test  claimed  that,  according  to  ordinary  Chris- 
tian faith  and  practice,  there  are  two  classes  of 
physical  facts.  One  set  of  such  facts,  such  as 
the  movements  of  the  heavenly  bodies,  the  flow 
of  the  tides,  the  fact  of  actual  death,  is  practi- 
cally regarded  as  lying  outside  the  range  and 
power  of  prayer.  Other  physical  facts,  such  as 
the  weather,  the  crops,  and  the  recovery  of  the 
sick,  seem  to  be  still  regarded  as  legitimate  ob- 
jects of  prayer.  Yet  the  latter  class  of  facts,  he 
claimed,  is  steadily  diminishing  year  after  year, 
and  diminishing,  too,  just  in  proportion  to  the 
progress  of  physical  knowledge.  To  which  it  is 


How  Can  God  Answer  Prayer  f     39 

to  be  replied  that  the  distinction  which  the 
writer  speaks  of  does  exist  and  always  must 
exist.  Where,  as  in  the  movements  of  the 
heavenly  bodies  or  the  fact  of  death,  the  divine 
will  is  for  any  reason  (scriptural  or  scientific) 
believed  to  be  fixed,  we  do  not  pray.  Where, 
as  in  the  perpetually  varying  conditions  of  sick- 
ness and  the  weather  or  war,  which  we  cannot 
trace,  we  believe  that  will  to  be  contingent,  we 
do  pray  and  always  shall.  The  one  state  of 
mind  is  as  Christian  and  also  as  reasonable  as 
the  other.  Or,  as  Karslake  well  puts  it :  "  With 
the  fixed  order  of  nature  we  do  not  ordinarily 
ask  God  to  interfere,  because  we  believe  that  we 
should  not  be  asking  according  to  His  will.  .  .  . 
But  it  is  not  from  a  moment's  doubt  of  God's 
power  to  interfere.  We  believe  that  one  day 
the  sun  will  cease  to  shine  and  that  all  who  are 
dead  will  be  raised  to  new  life.  It  is  our  con- 
viction as  to  God's  will,  not  any  doubt  as  to  His 
power  or  His  willingness  in  itself  to  listen  to  our 
prayers,  which  sets  the  limit  to  what  we  ask  of 
Him  in  prayer."1 

i  "  The  Theory  of  Prayer,"  p.  31. 


4O  God  and  Prayer. 

(c)  In  short,  for  Christians  to  have  submitted 
prayer  to  any  such  test  would,  for  them,  have 
been  irreverent  as  well  as  unfair.  It  would  have 
been  to  degrade  prayer  to  the  level  of  mere  in- 
cantation, and  God  will  not  "juggle."  He  will 
not  satisfy  mere  curiosity  with  "  signs."  Jesus 
refused  to  cast  Himself  down  from  the  temple 
pinnacle  even  to  prove  Himself  to  be  the  Son 
of  God.  Faith  must  be  only  single-minded  and 
devout,  if  prayer  is  to  be  answered. 

(5)  As  to  the  so-called  "  Christian  science  " 
and  "  faith-cure,"  these  deserve  only  a  passing 
reference  here.  One  would  heal  by  mere  self- 
reassurance  without  prayer,  and  so  is  properly 
outside  our  present  subject.  The  other  would 
heal  by  prayer  alone  without  medicine  or  other 
means,  and  so  is  squarely,  as  I  believe,  in  the 
face  of  God's  Word  1  and  Christ's  example.2 

II.  Turn  now  from  the  thought  of  prayer  for 
physical  blessings  to  that  of  prayer  for  spiritual 
blessings.  How  can  God  answer  even  such 
prayers  ? 

Little  need  be  said  here  as  to  the  fact  itself 

l  St.  James  v.  14.  2  §t.  Mark  vii.  33 ;  St.  John  ix.  6,  7. 


How  Can  God  Answer  Prayer  ?    41 

that  such  prayer  is  answered ;  the  question  just 
now  is  mainly  a  question  of  methods.  We  ask 
God,  for  instance,  for  strength  to  resist  tempta- 
tion or  willingness  to  do  and  bear  His  will ;  or 
we  ask  Him  for  the  spirit  of  penitence  or  purity 
or  charity  or  patience.  How — how  does  God 
give  His  Holy  Spirit  in  answer  to  such  prayers  ? 

(1)  Here,  again,  let  me  say  frankly  that  with 
reference  to  many  of  God's  ways  of  working  in 
this  connection  we  do  not  know  anything.    We 
cannot  trace  them  any  more  than  we  can  see  the 
movements  of  the  invisible  air.     His  free  Spirit 
works  where  and  when  and  as  it  pleases  Him, 
dividing  His  gifts  to  each  man  as  He  will.    The 
chain  of  motives  which  operate  "in  our  inner 
man "  to  bring  about  spiritual  changes  in  us 
often  seems  to  us  to  be  endless.     Yet  if  God 
Himself  really  dwells  in  us  and  we  in  Him,  there 
seems  no  reason  why  all  those  "godly  motions  in 
holiness"  of  which  we  are  conscious  (even  in 
answer  to  prayer)  should  not  proceed  directly 
from  that  indwelling  Spirit. 

(2)  But  it  has  pleased  God  to  tell  us  that  He 
also  works  upon  us  indirectly,  by  means,  to  pro- 


42  God  and  Prayer. 

duce  the  same  results.  Sometimes  He  does  it 
by  special  means.  He  impresses  us  spiritually 
by  striking  providences,  by  the  personal  exam- 
ples of  others,  by  what  we  call  the  merest  inci- 
dents of  daily  life, — a  chance  word,  the  ringing 
of  a  church  bell,  the  passing  of  a  hearse, — and 
this,  as  it  often  seems  to  us,  in  answer  to  our 
prayers.  But  better  than  this  and  far  more 
wonderful,  God  promises  to  work  in  us  spiritu- 
ally by  means  that  are  known  and  regular  and 
always  accessible  in  a  Christian  land.  These 
are  "  the  means  of  grace  "  which  He  has  pro- 
vided in  His  kingdom  of  grace,  the  Church.  In 
the  prayers — both  private  and  public — of  His 
people,  in  the  reading  and  preaching  of  His 
Word,  in  the  sacraments  and  other  ordinances 
of  His  house,  in  faithful  pastoral  ministrations, 
yes,  in  every  act  of  obedience  to  His  will,  there 
is  a  whole  treasury  of  means  through  which  God 
sends  spiritual  blessing  in  answer  to  prayer. 
Here  under  such  influences  it  is,  more  than 
anywhere  else,  that  He  reaches  and  renews  and 
directs  the  "  inner  man  "  in  us — our  reason,  our 
conscience,  our  affections,  our  will,  which  are  the 


How  Can  God  Answer  Prayer?    43 

immediate  factors  in  our  spiritual  life.  Take  the 
case  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  and  their  influence. 
Some  one  has  recently  invented  an  apparatus 
called  the  "  photophone."  A  body  of  electric  light 
is  thrown  by  a  strong  reflector  upon  a  sensitive 
plate  at  a  distance  and  there  reproduced  in  the 
form  of  sound.  Light  transmitted  into  sound ! 
What  a  marvelous  thing!  we  say.  And  yet  is 
it  half  so  marvelous  as  that  which  is  taking  place 
this  moment,  perhaps,  as  I  speak  to  you? 
Think  of  it !  An  idea — pure  thought — takes  its 
rise  in  my  brain.  Almost  in  the  same  instant 
it  too  is  transmuted  into  sound,  into  spoken 
words.  These  produce  upon  a  certain  material 
substance  called  the  atmosphere  certain  vibra- 
tions, which  are  communicated  to  the  sensitive 
nerves  of  your  ears,  and  an  impression  is  made 
upon  your  brain.  In  other  words,  almost  as 
soon  as  the  idea  is  formed  in  my  mind  it  is  in 
yours;  and  if  it  be  the  truth  of  God  which  I 
speak,  that  truth  has  power  to  touch  your 
mind,  your  conscience,  your  heart,  your  will, 
to  convince  you,  to  convict  you,  to  bring  you  to 
repentance  and  faith  in  Jesus  Christ,  to  sanctify 


44  God  and  Prayer. 

your  spirit  and  make  you  a  new  man  for  time 
and  for  eternity.  So  possible  is  it  for  God  to 
work  spiritually  through  His  word  spoken.  Is 
this  any  less  true  of  His  Word  written?  For 
what  is  this  book  in  my  hand,  which  we  call  the 
Bible?  Is  it  only  so  many  pounds  of  leather 
and  paper  and  printers'  ink?  Are  not  the 
mind  and  heart  and  will,  the  very  Spirit  of  the 
living  God  Himself,  in  the  truth  it  contains? 
Has  He  not  power  to  work  through  it  spir- 
itually in  answer  to  prayer?  "If,  instead  of 
merely  praying  for  faith,"  said  Mr.  Moody 
once,  "  I  had  also  read  my  Bible  devoutly,  I 
should  have  had  faith  a  good  deal  sooner  and  a 
good  deal  more  of  it."  And  what  is  thus  true 
of  one  of  the  means  of  grace  is  equally  true  of 
all.  They  are  the  ordinary  channels  through 
which  spiritual  blessings  are  to  be  sought  and 
expected  by  believing,  prayerful  souls.  If  we 
cannot  wholly  understand  the  process  of  such 
giving,  at  least  it  does  not  seem  unreasonable 
so  far  as  we  do  seem  able  to  understand  it. 

Thus  we  have  considered  some  of  the  objec- 
tive results  of  prayer ;  that  is,  its  direct  influence 
upon  God. 


How  Can  God  Answer  Prayer?    45 

III.  But  turn  now  to  its  subjective  effects. 
See  how  it  also  reacts  upon  ourselves  for  good. 
"  Some  effects  of  prayer  upon  the  soul,"  says 
Canon  Liddon,  "  are  natural  consequences  of 
directing  the  mind  and  the  affections  toward  a 
superhuman  object.  .  .  .  Thus  persons  without 
natural  ability  have,  through  the  earnestness  of 
devotional  habits,  acquired  in  time  power  of 
sustained  thought.  .  .  .  Habitual  prayer  con- 
fers decision  on  the  wavering,  and  energy  on 
the  listless,  and  calmness  on  the  excitable,  and 
disinterestedness  on  the  selfish.  .  .  .  Prayer 
makes  men  as  members  of  society  to  differ  in 
their  whole  bearing  from  those  who  do  not 
pray.  .  .  .  Prayer  has  even  its  physical  effects. 
The  countenance  of  a  Fra  Angelico  reflects  his 
spirit  no  less  than  does  his  act." 1  Even  Professor 
Tyndall,  in  his  discussion  of  "  the  prayer  test," 
said :  "  It  is  not  my  habit  of  mind  to  think  other- 
wise than  solemnly  of  the  feeling  which  prompts 
to  prayer.  Often  unreasonable,  even  contempt- 
ible, in  its  purer  forms  prayer  hints  at  disci- 
plines which  few  of  us  can  neglect  without  moral 
loss." 

1  "  Elements,"  etc.,  p.  178. 


46  God  and  Prayer. 

Let  us  try  to  conceive  reasonably  of  some 
such  effects  of  prayer. 

(1)  Consider  how  prayer  tends  to  keep  the  soul 
dependent  upon   God.     Suppose  that,  like  the 
prince  in  the  fairy  story,  we  had  only  to  ask 
God  once  in  a  lifetime  or  once  a  year  for  all  we 
wished  for,  in  order  to  get  it.     Would  that  be 
for  God's  glory?     Would  it  be  for  our  good? 
What  would  be  the  result  ?    Should  we  not  be- 
corrie  so  absorbed  in  the  gift  that  we  should  at 
once  and  altogether  forget  the  gracious  Giver  ? 
The  followers  of  Zoroaster  were  bidden  periodi- 
cally to  put  out  the  fires  on  their  hearths,  and  to 
rekindle  them  from  the  sacred  fire  in  the  tem- 
ple, in  order  that  they  might  not  forget  that  fire 
was  a  heavenly  gift.     Is  it  not  a  blessed  thing, 
then,   that  our  Lord  has  taught  us  to  'pray, 
"  Give  us  this  day  our  daily  bread  "  ?  and  the 
dear  Church  to  pray,  "  Keep  us  this  day  without 
sin "  ?     Is  it  not  so   that   we   are   helped   to 
constantly  remember  Him  from  whom  all  bless- 
ings flow? 

(2)  See  how  prayer  helps  to  keep  the  soul  open 
and  receptive  to  spiritual  influence.    If  the  trees 


How  Can  God  Answer  Prayer  ?     47 

and  flowers  kept  their  leaves  perpetually  turned 
downward,  could  God  bless  them  by  His  daily 
sunlight  and  nightly  dew  as  He  does  now? 
And  is  it  not  the  spirit  and  habit  of  prayer 
which,  more  than  anything  else,  keeps  our  souls 
perpetually  upturned  and  open  in  order  that 
they  too  may  receive  blessing  from  God  ?  God 
will  supply  our  physical  needs  whether  we  ask 
Him  to  or  not,  but  He  cannot  do  this  in  spirit- 
ual things.  Spiritual  blessing  is  not  possible 
unless  the  soul  is  first  prepared  for  it  by  sincere, 
prayerful  desire.  ;  In  spiritual  things  desiring  is 
receiving.  Jesus  not  only  promised,  "  Ask,  and 
it  shall  be  given  you ;"  He  also  explained,  "  For 
every  one  that  asketh  receiveth."1  And  again 
He  made  it  clear:  "What  things  soever  ye 
desire t  when  ye  pray,  believe  that  ye  receive 
them,  and  ye  shall  have  them." 2  The  Revised 
Version  is  even  stronger  here:  "All  things 
whatsoever  ye  pray  and  ask  for,  believe  that  ye 
have  received  Mh&m,  and  ye  shall  have  them." 

(3)  Prayer  incites  to  action.    It  often  turns  us 
into  God's  agents  to  answer  our  own  prayers. 
1  St.  Matt.  vii.  8.  a  St.  Mark  xi.  24. 


48  God  and  Prayer. 

In  the  realm  of  spiritual  things  desiring  is  doing 
as  well  as  receiving.  The  condition  of  spiritual 
increase  is  to  use  the  grace  we  pray  for. 
"  Watch ! "  said  the  Master,  even  while  He  bade 
us  pray.  Even  the  Lord's  Prayer — that  most 
objective  of  all  prayers — has  everywhere  also 
its  subjective  side.  You  cannot  pray  long  and 
earnestly,  "Thy  kingdom  come,"  without  get- 
ting up  off  your  knees  ready  to  do  all  that  you 
can  to  bring  about  the  coming  of  that  kingdom. 
You  cannot  pray  very  fervently,  "  Forgive  us 
our  trespasses,  as  we  forgive  those  that  trespass 
against  us,"  without  forgiving  them.  "  The 
petition,  '  Deliver  us  from  evil,'  is  idler  than  the 
breath  which  utters  it  unless  it  also  means  that 
we  pledge  ourselves  to  the  utmost  to  fight 
evil."1  Old  Luther's  maxim,  "  Bene  orare  est 
bene  laborare  "  ("  To  pray  well  is  to  work  all 
the  better"),  is  literally  true.  "I  fear  John 
Knox's  prayers,"  said  Queen  Mary  of  Scotland, 
"  more  than  an  army  of  ten  thousand  men." 
See  the  meaning  and  value,  in  this  connec- 

1  Dean  Farrar  on  "  The  Lord's  Prayer,"  p.  189,  American 
edition. 


How  Can  God  Answer  Prayer  ?    49 

tion,  of  united  and  intercessory  prayer.  Take 
one  of  the  most  remarkable  examples  in  modern 
times  of  the  results  of  such  prayer.  I  refer  to 
the  great  revival  of  1857  in  connection  with  the 
Fulton  Street  prayer-meeting  in  New  York 
City.  The  story  has  been  thrillingly  told  by 
the  Rev.  Dr.  S.  Irenseus  Prime  in  a  series  of 
books  entitled  "  The  Power  of  Prayer,"  "  Prayer 
and  its  Answer,"  etc.  In  1857  a  humble  lay 
missionary  in  New  York  was  moved,  as  a  result 
of  his  own  prayers,  to  establish  a  down- town 
noonday  prayer-meeting  for  business  men.  The 
first  day  he  prayed  long  alone;  at  last  half  a 
dozen  persons  strayed  in  and  joined  in  the 
prayers.  Day  by  day  the  attendance  increased 
until  the  room  would  not  hold  the  people.  The 
interest  and  the  movement  spread  rapidly. 
Many  churches  in  the  city  established  similar 
meetings.  People  of  all  Christian  names  and 
none  took  part  in  them.  Thousands  who  had 
never  prayed  before  prayed  then.  Thousands 
were  converted — some  from  blank  infidelity, 
many  from  lives  of  foulest  sin  and  crime — to 
lives  of  faith  and  righteousness.  At  last  the 


50  God  and  Prayer. 

movement  began  to  spread  like  wild-fire  all 
over  the  country.  It  was  felt  from  the  Atlan- 
tic coast  to  the  Mississippi  River.  The  total 
number  of  converts  was  something  enormous. 
No  such  religious  upheaval  in  America  had 
been  known  since  the  days  of  Edwards  and 
Whitefield. 

There  were  two  or  three  features  of  the  move- 
ment which  are  especially  noteworthy.  There 
was  no  preaching  of  any  kind  at  these  meet- 
ings, no  "  revivalists  "  or  revival  machinery,  no 
mere  attempts  to  "  rouse  interest "  or  to  "  keep 
it  up."  "All,"  says  Dr.  Prime,  "was  still, 
solemn,  awful."  The  great  feature  of  the  move- 
ment everywhere,  its  one  great  power  and  re- 
liance, was  prayer — Christian  prayer,  united 
prayer,  intercessory  prayer.  Requests  for 
prayer  for  others  were  ceaseless.  Husbands, 
wives,  children,  friends,  many  of  them  at  a  dis- 
tance, some  on  ships  in  mid-ocean,  were  prayed 
for  and  brought  to  repentance  and  faith.  The 
facts  as  given  in  detail  by  Dr.  Prime  are  sur- 
prising and  seem  substantially  indisputable. 

How  shall  we  account  for  them  ?    Say,  if  you 


How  Can  God  Answer  Prayer?     51 

will,  that  all  these  so-called  "  answers  to  prayer  " 
were  only  its  subjective  effects,  the  results  of  a 
sort  of  emotional  contagion,  the  contagion  of  a 
certain  prevalent  spirit.  Very  well.  Now  what 
was  that  "  spirit  "  ?  Spell  it  with  a  capital  S, 
note  its  workings,  and  is  it  not  just  what  was 
prayed  for?  Is  it  not  just  what  Christ  prom- 
ised in  answer  to  such  prayers  ?  Was  it  not  the 
Holy  Spirit  of  God  doing  His  proper  work, 
working  out  men's  repentance,  faith,  and  obedi- 
ence, and  manifesting  Himself  in  changed  char- 
acters and  lives?  If  as  Christians  we  believe  in 
anything  divine,  how  can  we  doubt  the  divine 
reality  even  in  such  so-called  subjective  effects 
of  prayer  ? 

(4)  Again,  prayer  leads  us  at  length  to  adjust 
our  wills  to  Gods  will.  If  I  am  afloat  in  a 
small  boat  and  want  to  get  on  board  of  a  great 
ship  to  which  I  am  attached,  I  may  not  by  pull- 
ing on  the  rope  be  able  to  move  the  great  ship 
perceptibly,  but  I  can  draw  my  little  boat  up 
to  it.  So  it  is  one  of  the  convictions — may  we 
not  call  it  a  revelation  ? — which  follows  faithful 
though  often  disappointed  prayer,  that  its  true 


5  2  God  and  Prayer. 

purpose,  after  all,  is  not  to  pray  God  over  to  our 
side,  but  to  pray  ourselves  over  to  His  side. 
The  highest,  hardest  reach  of  Christian  faith 
and  obedience  is  to  be  able  to  say,  not  in  mere 
submission  or  resignation,  but  in  all  cheerful 
acquiescence,  "  Not  my  will,  Father,  but  Thine, 
be  done."  And  only  the  prayerful  soul,  often 
disappointed,  learns  that  lesson  thoroughly  and 
lays  it  to  heart  as  the  best  answer  possible  to  its 
prayer,  after  all. 

(5)  Thus/nsyw  helps  us  to  realize  God  more 
vividly,  perhaps,  than  in  any  other  way.  In 
spiritual  communion  with  Him  we  feel  the 
oneness  of  our  spiritual  life  with  His.  Such  an 
experience  is  the  most  subjectively  literal  ful- 
filment possible  of  the  promise,  "  Draw  nigh 
to  God,  and  He  will  draw  nigh  to  you."1  By 
prayer  we  are  often  transported  out  of  our- 
selves, and  not  only  feel  ourselves  passing,  as  it 
were,  into  the  presence  of  God,  but  the  very 
life  of  God  manifesting  itself  also  in  us.  Such, 
at  least,  was  the  effect  of  prayer — can  you  call 
it  merely  subjective  ? — in  the  case  of  the  blessed 

1  St.  James  iv.  8. 


How  Can  God  Answer  Prayer  ?     53 

Master.  It  was  while  "  He  was  praying "  at 
His  baptism  that  "  the  heaven  was  opened " 
and  the  Spirit  descended  upon  Him.  It  was 
"as  He  prayed"  that  ""the  fashion  of  His 
countenance  was  altered  "  and  He  was  "  trans- 
figured "  with  a  glory  not  of  earth. 

In  short,  all  our  religious  life  gains,  as  every 
other  part  of  our  life  does,  by  the  force  of  habit 
— by  prayerfulness.  Yet,  strive  as  we  may 
— sometimes  successfully — to  distinguish  in 
thought  the  merely  subjective  effects  of  prayer 
from  its  objective  effects,  they  do,  in  fact,  so 
merge  into  one  another  as  to  be  but  parts,  after 
all,  of  one  and  the  same  divine  reality.  "We 
trace  the  human  upward,"  says  Le  Conte,  "  as 
we  study  more  and  more  deeply;  but  as  with 
upturned  faces  and  straining,  worshiping  eyes 
we  gaze,  it  is  carried  up  from  the  comprehensi- 
ble to  the  incomprehensible,  from  the  finite  to 
the  infinite,  from  the  human  to  the  divine." 1 

Thus  we  have  tried  to  see  something,  never- 
theless, of  how  it  is  that  God  both  can  and  does 
answer  prayer. 

i  Page  44. 


LECTURE  III. 

WHY  DOES  NOT  GOD  ANSWER  MY  PRAYERS? 

ONE  more  essential  question  remains  to  be 
considered.  If  it  is  true  that  God  can  both  hear 
and  answer  prayer,  then  why  does  he  not  answer 
my  prayers  ? 

I.  St.  James  states  very  clearly  one  reason 
why  God  does  not  always  answer  our  prayers. 
"  Ye  ask,  and  receive  not,"  he  says,  "  because 
ye  ask  amiss,  that  ye  may  consume  it  upon  your 
lusts."1  Is  not  that  too  true?  Are  not  our 
prayers  altogether  too  often  selfish  prayers, 
prayers  for  mere  temporal  blessings  on  ourselves 
or  on  our  own,  prayers  for  our  worldly  success 
or  for  our  personal  comfort  and  happiness  ?  But 
these  are  not  the  chief  objects  of  prayer.  God's 

1  St.  James  iv.  3. 
54 


Prayer —  Why  Not  Answered?      55 

promised  blessings — under  the  gospel,  at  least 
— are  not  of  a  temporal  kind,  but  spiritual. 
Would  it  be  good  for  us  if  God  gratified  our 
every  whim?  See  how  it  is  with  yourselves 
and  your  children.  A  hundred  times  a  day 
your  little  ones  ask  you  for  all  sorts  of  indul- 
gences, and  you  love  to  have  them  do  so ;  but 
would  it  be  right  and  best  in  you  to  give  them 
all  they  ask  for?  Do  you  not,  in  your  very 
wisdom  and  love  for  them,  deny  them  much 
which  you  know  would  harm  them?  Now 
notice  how  the  Master  turns  this  homely  fact 
round  and  brings  it  to  bear  on  us.  "  If  ye  then," 
He  says,  "  being  evil  [that  is,  with  all  your  un- 
wisdom and  imperfections],  know  how  to  give 
[only]  good  gifts  unto  your  children,  how  much 
more  shall  your  Father  which  is  in  heaven  give 
[only]  good  things  ["  give  the  Holy  Spirit,"  St. 
Luke  has  it]  to  them  that  ask  Him  ?  "  *  It  is  in 
the  spirit  of  this  truth  that  the  Church  always 
sums  up  her  daily  prayers :  "  Fulfil  now,  O  Lord, 
the  desires  and  petitions  of  Thy  servants,  as  may 
be  most  expedient  for  them."  You  can  trust 
i  St.  Matt.  vii.  u  ;  St.  Luke  xi.  13. 


56  God  and  Prayer. 

God  to  answer  your  prayers  on  such  a  principle 
as  that,  can  you  not?  and  believe  that 

"  Tis  goodness  still  which  grants  them  or  denies." 

II.  Even  such  "  good  things  "  of  "  His  Spirit " 
God  gives  only  on  conditions.  How  often  those 
little  words  "  if  "  and  "  except "  occur  in  God's 
promises,  and  how  much  they  mean ! 

(a)  Prayer,  even  for  spiritual  things,  must  be 
believing  prayer.     "  If  ye  shall  ask  anything  in 
My  name  "  (that  is,  on  My  merits  or  interces- 
sion), said  Jesus,  "  I  will  do  it."  * 

(b)  Prayer  must  be  humble  prayer,  i.e.,  in 
perfect  submission  to  God's  will.     Even  Jesus 
at  His  arrest  would  not  ask  for  the  ready  legions 
of  angels,  because  He  believed  that  it  would  de- 
feat His  Father's  plans. 

(c)  Prayer  must  be  righteous  prayer.     It  is 
only  "  the  effectual  fervent  prayer  of  a  right- 
eous man  "  that  "  availeth  much."    "  The  Lord 
is  far  from  the  wicked:   but  He  heareth  the 
prayer  of  the  righteous."2     Even  the  prayer 
of   the   self-righteous   Pharisee   was    unheard, 

i  St.  John  xiv.  14.  8  Prov.  xv.  29. 


Prayer —  Why  Not  A  nswered  ?     57 

while  the  penitent  publican  went  down  to  his 
house  justified. 

(d)  Prayer  must  be  obedient  prayer.     "  If  ye 
forgive  not  men  their  trespasses,  neither  will 
your  Father  forgive  your  trespasses."1     How 
can  He?     There  is  no  room  in  the  same  heart 
for  humility  before  God  and  resentment  against 
one's  fellow-man.     Recall  the  parable  of  The 
Unmerciful  Servant. 

(e)  Prayer  must  be  also  secret,  fervent,  perse- 
vering, importunate,  to  get  an  answer  from  God. 
God  gives  only  on  conditions. 

III.  But  now,  before  you  complain  that  God 
has  not  answered  your  prayers,  be  sure — be 
perfectly  sure— that  He  has  not  done  so.  It 
may  be  that  He  has  answered  them,  not  in  the 
way  you  wished,  perhaps,  but  in  a  way  far  bet- 
ter than  you  either  asked  or  thought.  The 
disciple  cannot  be  above  his  Master ;  it  is  enough 
for  the  disciple  that  he  be  as  his  Master. 

(a)  And  how  was  it  with  the  Master?  Think 
of  Him  on  that  night  of  His  agony,  when  His 
sensitive  flesh  drew  back  in  horror  from  the 

1  St.  Matt.  vi.  15. 


58  God  and  Prayer. 

pain,  and  His  equally  sensitive  soul  from  all  the 
ignominy  and  desolation  of  the  looming  cross. 
Look  at  Him  as  He  lies  prone  upon  the  earth, 
His  face  buried  in  the  very  dust,  and  the  sweat 
of  His  suffering  running  down  as  it  were  great 
drops  of  blood.  Listen  as,  no  less  than  three 
separate  times,  He  beseeches  His  Father  to  de- 
liver Him,  and  at  last  asks  only  for  grace  to 
submit.  Then  recall  what  we  are  told  elsewhere 
about  Him:  "Who  in  the  days  of  His  flesh, 
when  He  had  offered  up  prayers  and  supplica- 
tion with  strong  crying  and  tears  unto  Him  that 
was  able  to  save  Him  from  death,  and  was  heard 
in  that  He  feared."1  Heard?  But  how?  Not  in 
taking  away  the  pain  and  shame  of  the  cross,  but 
in  strengthening  Him  to  bear  them ;  not  in  ig- 
noring His  Sonship,  but  in  helping  Him,  even 
"  though  He  was  a  Son,  [still]  to  learn  obedi- 
ence by  the  things  which  He  suffered  "  ;  not  in 
giving  Him  over  unto  death,  but  in  leading  Him 
to  submit  to  death,  that  so  He  might  abolish 
death  forevermore.  So  was  His  prayer  an- 
swered ;  not  the  prayer  for  deliverance,  but  the 
i  Heb.  v.  7. 


Prayer —  Why  Not  A  nswered  f      59 

prayer  for  submission.  So,  not  His  will,  but 
His  Father's,  was  done — which  was  what  He 
asked.  So  the  already  perfect  spirit  of  obedi- 
ence in  Him  became  at  length  the  perfect  virtue 
of  obedience,  and  the  salvation  of  a  world  was 
made  sure. 

(b)  Is  there  no  counterpart  of  all  this  in  our 
own  experience  ?  Have  there  not  been  days  of 
suffering  and  sorrow  in  our  lives,  when  it  seemed 
as  if  all  our  prayers  for  deliverance  were  unan-  \ 
swered,  until  we  too  were  willing  that  a  higher 
and  wiser  will  than  our  own  should  be  done? 
And  did  we  not  find  out  at  length  how  through  all 
God  was  working  out  in  us  a  higher  life  of  faith, 
crucifying  our  selfishness  and  self-sufficiency, 
and  drawing  us  nearer  to  Himself  in  a  new  de- 
pendence and  trust  and  obedience?  Was  not 
that  a  better  answer  than  any  we  ourselves  had 
asked  or  even  thought  of?  "Here,  then," 
says  one,  most  beautifully,  "  we  come  to  the 
prayer  which  is  efficacious,  to  the  domain  in 
which  prayer  is  all-powerful  and  never  fails  of 
its  answer.  He  who  has  prayed  in  agony  of 
soul,  every  fiber  of  his  being  quivering  with 


60  God  and  Prayer. 

dread  of  the  cup  presented  to  his  lips,  knows 
that  his  prayer  is  answered  when  the  angels  of 
strong  patience  and  enduring  faith  descend  into 
his  heart,  ministering  the  peace  of  perfect  trust 
till  he  can  take  the  cup  with  unfaltering  hand 
and  drain  it,  saying,  '  My  Father,  not  my  will, 
but  Thine,  be  done.'  He  who  in  the  dark  storm 
of  doubt  and  temptation  has  prayed  for  light, 
only  for  light  to  see  the  truth  and  the  right, 
knows  that  his  prayer  is  answered  when  a  path 
becomes  visible  in  which  he  is  constrained  to 
tread,  let  it  lead  where  it  may.  Those,  again, 
to  whom  prayer  is  not  only  petition,  but  com- 
munion, they  also  know  that  their  prayers  are 
answered  when,  in  the  hush  of  midnight  or  the 
pause  in  the  toil  and  turmoil  of  the  day,  they 
lift  up  their  hearts  to  that  Presence  whose  holi- 
ness shames  all  impurity,  whose  will  shames 
all  selfishness,  whose  ceaseless  activity  shames 
all  faint-hearted  sloth.  To  tell  these  that  they 
first  imagine  the  strength,  the  light,  the  help 
they  are  conscious  of  receiving,  and  then  ac- 
count for  them  by  imagining  a  God  who  an- 
swers prayer,  is  neither  a  more  nor  less  valid 


Prayer —  Why  Not  A  nswered  ?      6 1 

argument  than  to  say  that  we  first  imagine 
the  impressions  we  are  conscious  of  receiving 
through  our  senses  and  then  invent  an  external 
world  to  account  for  them." 1 

IV.  Even  if  some  of  our  prayers  seem  never 
to  have  been  answered  here  in  this  world,  let  us 
be  sure  that  they  are  at  least  accepted  of  God 
if  offered  in  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ;  and  let 
us  remember  what  a  blessed  hope  and  assurance 
we  have  that  they  will  be  answered  at  length  in 
another  world.  Both  the  Word  of  God  and 
our  own  innate  longings  for  immortality  combine 
to  make  us  sure  that  "  the  withheld  comple- 
tions "  of  our  spiritual  life  here  shall  be  fulfilled 
there.  In  that  marvelous  picture  which  the 
pen  of  inspiration  has  drawn  of  the  worship  of 
heaven,  our  spiritual  intuitions  receive  their 
highest  confirmation  that  the  sincere  desires  of 
God's  people  for  the  things  of  God  will  not  have 
been  forgotten.  For  we  read,  "  When  He  [the 
Lamb]  had  taken  the  book,  the  four  beasts  and 
four  and  twenty  elders  fell  down  before  the 
Lamb,  having  every  one  of  them  harps,  and 

l  See  Karslake,  p.  88. 


62  God  and  Prayer. 

golden  vials  full  of  odors,  which  are  the  prayers 
of  saints."  l  The  prayers  of  saints!  "  How  re- 
markable it  would  seem  to  us,"  said  Henry  Ward 
Beecher,"if  it  were  revealed  to  us  that  there  dwelt 
in  the  air  a  race  of  fine  and  fairy  spirits,  whose 
work  it  was  to  watch  all  the  flowers  of  the  earth 
and  catch  their  perfumed  breath  and  present  it 
in  golden  vials  for  heavenly  use!  But  how 
much  more  grand  is  the  thought  that  all  over 
the  earth  God's  angels  have  caught  the  heart's 
breath,  its  prayers  and  love,  and  that  in  heaven 
they  are  before  God  like  precious  odors  poured 
out  from  golden  vases  by  saintly  hands!" 

V.  Add  to  this  now  the  testimony  of  the 
saints  of  all  ages.  The  best  men  of  all  times 
have  uniformly  believed,  on  their  own  experi- 
ence, in  answers  to  prayer.  On  such  a  subject 
such  evidence  more  than  outweighs  a  few  the- 
oretical objections  and  difficulties.  The  testi- 
mony of  the  Spirit  within  ourselves  answering 
to  this  witness  of  the  people  of  God  in  all  ages ; 
the  lives  of  those  who  pray  sincerely ;  the  prom- 
ises of  what  we  believe  to  be  the  Word  of  God ; 

l  Rev.  v.  8. 


Prayer —  Why  Not  Answered?     63 

the  assurance  that,  if  Christianity  be  true  at  all, 
then  "  He  who  spared  not  His  own  Son  will, 
with  Him,  freely  give  us  all  things  " — all  justify 
as  reasonable  our  faith  in  a  prayer-answering 
God.  The  force  of  such  an  argument  is  cumu- 
lative and  final,  if  not  to  the  point  of  absolute 
certainty,  at  least  to  that  of  overwhelming  prob- 
ability. That  is  all  that  faith  has  a  right  to  ask. 

In  short,  as  the  evidence  for  any  scientific 
fact  is  the  evidence  of  all  scientific  truth,  as,  for 
example,  the  evidence  for  the  rotation  of  the 
earth  is  nothing  less  than  the  whole  science  of 
astronomy,  so  the  evidence  for  a  prayer-hear- 
ing, prayer-answering  God  is  nothing  short  of 
whole  Christianity — in  revelation,  in  experience, 
in  history.1 

"  This,"  then,  "  is  the  confidence  that  we  have  i 
in  God,  that,  if  we  ask  anything  according  to  His 
will,  He  heareth  us:  and  if  we  know  that  He 
hear  us,  whatsoever  we  ask,  we  know  that  we 
have  the  petitions  that  we  desired  of  Him."  2 

VI.   In  conclusion  let  me  say : 

(i)  That   I   am  perfectly  aware   that  these 
i  See  Le  Conte,  p.  235.  *  I  St.  John  v.  14,  15. 


64  God  and  Prayer. 

lectures  on  "  the  reasonableness  of  prayer  "  do 
not  amount  to  an  absolute  demonstration  of  the 
subject.  They  were  not  expected  to.  The 
subject,  even  including  the  fact  of  our  own  per- 
sonal experience,  belongs  distinctly  to  the  realm 
of  faith,  not  that  of  knowledge — at  least,  only 
to  that  kind  of  knowledge  which  comes  by  faith. 
There  are  difficulties  connected  with  it — neces- 
sarily so,  as  we  have  seen.  These  can  largely, 
as  we  have  also  seen,  be  removed  by  still  fur- 
ther careful  thought  along  the  very  lines  where 
they  occur.  On  the  other  hand,  there  is  this 
reassurance :  that  no  process  of  reasoning,  "  no 
mere  natural  science,  no  matter  how  complete, 
can  ever  demonstrate  that  it  is  impossible  that 
there  may  be  a  God,  or  that  He  may  manifest 
Himself  in  their  measure  to  other  personal 
spirits  along  lines  other  than  those  of  the 
senses  and  by  methods  different  from  those  of 
natural  observation  and  experience."1  Given 
the  existence  and  nature  of  the  human  soul  and 
our  corresponding  conceptions  of  God,  given 
the  facts  of  our  spiritual  experience  confirming 

1  Du  Bose's  "  Councils,"  p.  3. 


Prayer —  Why  Not  Answered?      65 

the  teachings  of  revelation,  there  is  more  than 
enough  in  these  to  make  the  idea  and  practice 
of  prayer  reasonable.  Enough,  at  least,  has 
been  said  here,  I  trust,  to  confirm  such  a  faith 
in  you  and  strengthen  some  wavering  souls. 
For  nowhere  else  more  truly  than  in  connection 
with  prayer  does  the  spiritual  principle  hold 
good,  that  according  to  your  faith,  so  shall  it  be 
unto  you. 

(2)  Believe  on,  then,  in  God  as  a  Father,  who 
has  "  ears  to  hear,  a  heart  to  feel,  and  a  hand 
to  help."  Trust  your  own  heart  and  His  even 
more  than  your  head  in  such  a  matter.  Pray 
on  for  yourselves  and  for  others,  sure  that 
prayer  is  one  of  the  mightiest  forces  in  the  uni- 
verse— yes,  that  it  is  able  to  set  in  motion,  per- 
haps, all  the  mightiest  forces  of  the  universe. 
You  remember  how  long  the  World's  Fair  at  Chi- 
cago was  a-preparing.  All  the  latest  triumphs 
of  human  thought  and  skill  were  there  displayed 
for  our  instruction  and  gratification.  When  all 
things  were  ready,  the  President  of  the  United 
States,  who  was  at  hand,  pressed  a  little  button. 
The  electric  current  instantly  sped  away  to  a 


66  God  and  Prayer. 


lever  on  the  great  engine  in  Machinery  Hall; 
at  once  the  great  fly-wheel  began  to  re- 
volve. Gradually  it  communicated  its  own 
motion  to  every  one  of  the  ten  thousand  ma- 
chines and  devices  for  man's  comfort  and  plea- 
sure. Almost  at  the  same  instant  the  bands 
began  to  play,  flags  were  thrown  to  the  breeze, 
the  fountains  cast  up  their  waters,  and  a  great 
shout  of  astonishment  and  admiration  at  what 
man  had  done,  went  up  from  a  hundred  thousand 
throats.  So  with  reference  to  this  strange 
thing  called  prayer,  which  God  has  placed 
so  fully  at  our  command :  it  has  power  to 
move  a  lever  in  the  throne  of  God,  which  is 
able  to  move  a  world.  The  science  of  astron- 
omy, by  its  law  of  gravitation,  binds  the  whole 
universe  of  space  together  about  one  common 
center.  The  science  of  geology,  by  its  princi- 
ple ojf  evolution,  binds  the  whole  universe  of 
time  together  about  one  common  starting-point.1 
So  the  science  of  religion,  by  its  principle  of  faith 
expressed  in  prayer,  "  binds  back  "  the  world 
of  human  life  about  the  same  common  source 

i  Le  Conte. 


Prayer —  Why  Not  A  nswered  ?      67 

— in  God.    As  Tennyson  so  beautifully  reminds 
us: 

"  More  things  are  wrought  by  prayer 
Than  this  world  dreams  of.  ... 
For  what  are  men  better  than  sheep  or  goats, 
That  nourish  a  blind  life  within  the  brain, 
If,  knowing  God,  they  lift  not  hands  of  prayer 
Both  for  themselves  and  those  who  call  them  friend? 
For  so  the  whole  round  earth  is  every  way 
Bound  by  gold  chains  about  the  feet  of  God."1 

i  "  Morte  d' Arthur." 


"001000867     o 


